Has motorcycle theft finally turned the corner?
While all motor vehicle theft has been decreasing in the past few years thanks to a unified nationwide attack on rebirthing crime, motorcycle theft has continued to rise. But now it appears to be trending down, according to the second-quarter figures released this week by the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council.
There were 1946 motorcycles stolen in the second quarter, which is down 14.8% on the previous quarter. Although winter motorcycle theft is always down, it decreased 3.7% on the same quarter last year and joyriding or short-term theft was down 9% from the previous year.
While joyriders seem to be on the wane, profit-motivated motorcycle theft by “professional” thieves is only down marginally and still represents more than a quarter of all vehicles stolen and not recovered.
Worst state or motorcycle theft remains Western Australia where off-road bikes and scooters are the biggest targets. However, the situation is improving thanks to an initiative by the theft council and WA police to supply alarms to scooter owners in high-risk suburbs. In the second quarter, 517 bikes were stolen in WA which was down 13.3%.
Queensland was next with 368 (down 10%), Victoria 441 (up 6.8%), NSW 355 (no change), SA 120 (-16.7%), NT 72 (56.5%) Tasmania 43 (4.9%) and ACT 30 (76.5%). Most were stolen in the South East Queensland region.
The most popular brands stolen were, of course, the biggest sellers, which are the Japanese brands. While bikes between 200cc and 500cc were more commonly targeted, scooter brands are always big targets for thieves because they are lighter and easier to steal.
Where they were stolen
(2014 Q2 compared with 2013 Q2)
Brisbane City, 73, -31.8%
Cockburn, WA, 57, 96.6%
Gold Coast, 56, 47.4%
Moreton Bay region, 38, -20.8%
Melbourne City, 38, 171.4%
Stirling, WA, 38, -9.5%
Gosnells, WA, 36, 24.1%
Darebin, Victoria, 34, 30.8%
Sydney City, 31, -8.8%
Greater ACT, 30, 76.5%
What was stolen
Yamaha 377
Honda 367
Suzuki 165
Kawasaki 149
KTM 130
Harley-Davidson 43
SYM 40
Longjia 39
Kymco 37
Triumph 35
Vmoto 35
Bolwell 34
Piaggio 33
Hyosung 27
TGB 26
Vespa 22
Husqvarna 21
Polaris 17
CFMoto 16
Aprilia 13