Málaga province is number one in Andalucia and number four in all Spain, but it would rather not be in those positions. The rankings relate to car thefts and are from a report compiled by Linea Direct covering the period 2006 to 2012.
Nationally, Málaga province is fourth behind Madrid, Toledo and Alicante. Almost 40% of cars stolen are between three and six years old and the Toyota Land Cruiser is one of the top targets for thieves.
Other popular vehicles are the Seat Leon, the Volkswagen Golf, BMW 3 Series, Seat Ibiza, the Volkswagen Passat, Renault Megane, Audi A-4 and the old Escort, Fiesta and Focus models from Ford.
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a popular target for resale in the Maghreb and in Eastern Europe. Apart from resale, many are illegally scrapped for spares or used to commit other crimes. There is also an increasing number of false theft claims in order to defraud insurance companies.
On the positive side, car thefts have almost halved in the last twenty years, although in 2012 the number of cars reported stolen was still in the region of 50,000. Of these, 39% were successfully recovered.
The report also shows that the most popular month for thefts is July and the least popular is September. And the most popular day for thefts is Saturday.
The report was compiled using figures from the insurance company’s client database and not from police data relating to reported thefts.