Counting cost of car crime

One car is stolen, vandalised or broken into in Ratcliffe Street, Clifton, every three days.

It has been named as York's worst car crime hot spot by police and community safety bosses, who failed in their attempts to turn it around last year.

The city's Crime Commander, Detective Superintendent Lewis Raw, said: "Ratcliffe Street is our biggest hot spot in terms of car crime offences."

And Ratcliffe Street is not alone the number of vehicle offences went up in more than half of the areas being targeted for tougher action in the city last year.

Car crime rose in 13 of the 24 areas targeted by police and Safer York Partnership's Vehicle Crime Task Group between April 1, 2005, and March 31, 2006, despite a nine per cent drop in them overall.

Police made Ratcliffe Street a top target zone after there were 111 vehicle offences there in 2004-05.

They ploughed resources into the area with the aim of reducing car crime by 15 per cent to 94 crimes.

But instead it soared by 22.5 per cent to 136 crimes.

The increase came despite initiatives including Smartwater, CCTV cameras and extra patrols.

Car crime also went up in Rose Street, off Wiggington Road another target zone.

The initiatives have reaped huge rewards in some of the city's problem areas in the Holgate Road area it dropped by 28 per cent and in Fishergate it was slashed by 38 per cent.

But police are baffled as to why it has gone up in other areas.

Det Supt Raw, who chairs the task group, said there were several reasons for the problem in Ratcliffe Street.

He said: "It is between Clifton, the hospital and Micklegate. It's a route that people follow from Clifton into town.

"It also has alleyways running through it, which increases the possibility of crime from the alleyways, and people leave their cars there to go to York Hospital and the city centre.

"One of the factors appears to be where the offenders live. In some of the areas where car crime has increased, it may well be that offenders have move into that area."

He said he couldn't "rule out" the possibility that offenders were moving from the areas targeted by police to commit crime elsewhere.

"We do get some displacement but we can't say it is actively as a result of our operations," he said. "Offenders move around, and they sometimes move to avoid areas where police action is targeted."

Police are determined to crack the problem in Ratcliffe Street. They have issued Smartwater, an indelible marker with a distinctive chemical code, which makes it easier to track down criminals who have handled stolen goods, to 500 houses in the area.

They are now looking at the possibility of alleygating, or making some streets into cul-de-sacs.

Clifton councillor Ken King said: "It isn't just Ratcliffe Street, it's the whole area covering a number of streets around Ratcliffe Street which is suffering from more crime than other parts of York.

"It's taking cars, breaking into cars and burglary."

He said he was working with police and there would be a public consultation to see what local people think of potential solutions like alleygating.

Det Supt Raw said car crime was one of the biggest problems the city's police faced. It went up by more than 12 per cent in 2005-06 and accounted for more than 7.5 per cent of all crime in York.

But he said efforts to turn the tide were beginning to work.

In April and May, car crime dropped by 18 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Theft of vehicles went down by 29 per cent and vehicle interference dropped by 45 per cent, but theft from vehicles went up by two per cent.

The Vehicle Crime Task Group has been relaunched and 22 hot spots are now being targeted. They include those where crime went up last year and some new areas.

An architecture liaison officer is looking at environmental factors, such as street lighting, cutting back shrubbery, changes to parking and use of CCTV in York's worst hit areas.

Det Supt Raw said CRASBOs and ASBOs were a good way to curtail offenders.

Last week, the Press told how serial car criminal Jamie Campy, of Danum Road, Fulford, faces five years in jail if he so much as puts a fingertip on a car without permission in the next two years.

Campy, 21, was given the CRASBO by York magistrates after committing 75 vehicle crimes in a six-year spree.

Insurance quotes are streets apart

CAR owners living in Ratcliffe Street are forking out more for car insurance than their neighbours as a result of the crime figures.

The Press applied to four insurance companies twice using the same set of details for our driver a 25-year-old female and vehicle a W reg Ford Escort.

But for in the first application our driver said she lived in Ratcliffe Street and in the second she said she lived just the other side of the railway line, in nearby Feversham Crescent.

Our fictional motorist was a professional who had been driving for four years and notched up about 10,000 miles a year. She left her car, which had a 16 litre engine, parked in the street at night.

The RAC quoted £803 to the Ratcliffe Street resident, £84 more than the £719 price offered to the Feversham Crescent resident.

Admiral quoted £773.80 to the Ratcliffe Street resident and £676.71 to the Feversham Crescent resident a difference of £97.09.

Churchill asked for £10 more from the Ratcliffe Street applicant, at a price of £483.

And More Than quoted 813.54 to the Ratcliffe Street resident, £28.20 more than they £785.34 asked from the woman living in Feversham Crescent.

A spokeswoman for Admiral said insurance costs were based on post code area. She said car crime was taken into account when determining premiums, but the biggest factor was the number of accidents in an area because they tended to involve bigger pay outs.

She said: "Some areas are more high risk than others, even within the same neighbourhood.

"If you take steps to prevent car crime, by fitting things like immobilisers and alarms to your car, it can help bring your insurance premiums down."

Talk on the street

PEOPLE living in Ratcliffe Street told how they had been plagued by car crime.

Resident Michael Flanagan said: "Someone tried to lever the door open on a car further up the street last week.

"They smashed all the wing mirrors on the cars. There were about 13 smashed in a few weeks back."

Daniel Taylor, 27, said: "My car's been broken into twice in about two years. The first time they nicked my stereo and some CDs. I replaced the stereo and then they nicked the new one.

"I'm not going to buy another one. What's the point?"

Most residents said they did not want to be named because they were afraid their cars would be targeted if they spoke out.

One woman said: "There were two cars targeted on the other side of the road a couple of weeks ago. They'd had their windscreens smashed. There was glass everywhere."

Another said: "I've had my wing mirrors broken three times."

But local neighbourhood watch co-ordinator Gled Hill said he was surprised to hear there was a lot of car crime in Ratcliffe Street. He said there had been problems with a group of local youths, but they did not usually target cars.