By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
THE POLICE are reporting a jump in the number of motor vehicles being stolen, with close to 1,000 being snatched from owners during the first five months of this year.
Most of the vehicles have been stolen in St. Andrew and St. Catherine, according to police data.
The Jamaica Association of General Insurance Companies (JAGIC), the umbrella group for the island's major general insurers, is expressing concern about "the increasing trend of theft in the marketplace".
Up to the end of May, only 113 of the over 900 cars stolen since January have been recovered by the police and only eight persons have been arrested and charged.
Deputy chairman of JAGIC, Peter John Thwaites, noted that his organisation has a sub-committee on fraud that works closely with the police and the Inland Revenue Department. He said too that JAGIC is working closely with government agencies to explore the possibility of sharing their databases. This, he explained, would allow cross referencing of information.
The JAGIC executive appears to hold very little hope that motor vehicle theft would be significantly reduced in the near future. "We have such a bandoolu society that it is difficult to recover... sometimes the vehicle is sold three times and it appears that people can get [apparently legitimate] documents with impunity from the various collectorates," Mr. Thwaites bemoaned.
NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGE
He believes that there will be no significant change in the situation until "we get a better equipped Police Force, better networking and tighten up control at the collectorates" across the island.
Questioned about the low level of recovery and arrest of car thieves, Assistant Commissioner Reggie Grant referred The Gleaner to Superintendent Norman Gordon, head of the Organised Crime Investigation Division (OCID).
"He is the man with mandate," emphasised ACP Grant.
However, Superintendent Gordon was out of office when The Gleaner contacted his office yesterday.
Of the over 950 cars stolen since the start of the year, 510 were reported to be Toyota model vehicles, followed by Nissans, 162; and Hondas, 155. Between January and March, the police said 565 cars were stolen. Another 175 were stolen in April and 203 in May.
CLAIMS
Claims manager at United General Insurance Company (UGI), while noting that there had not been a general increase in claims over the last five months, said however "we've noticed a trend of Toyota Hiace being stolen... I don't know what has caused this shift towards the Hiace... we cannot understand exactly what is happening. I am doing an analysis of it."
Police records indicate that 263 of these vehicles were stolen in the St. Andrew North Police Division, which incorporates the commercial district of Half-Way Tree, including the busy Liguanea, Papine, Mona and Hope Pastures areas.
The neighbouring division of St. Andrew North has accounted for 147 of the stolen vehicles during the period under review, followed by St. Catherine South 120, and St. Catherine North, 73.
In an interview with The Gleaner last week, the commanding officer for South St. Catherine, said that "within Portmore we've made a lot of arrests mostly for motor vehicle theft. We still continue to have instances of vehicles being stolen but we've been able to reduce the amount by having our crime analyst look at the pattern."
