Police seize over 600 ‘hacked’ luxury cars worth £14,000,000

This is the scene that greeted police who seized more than £14million in ‘hacked’ luxury cars to be shipped abroad.

More than 600 vehicles, including Range Rovers, were found cut in half with parts such as bumpers, steering wheels and headlights crushed in shipping containers.

Many were stolen to order and intended to be sold abroad at inflated prices, said members of Essex Police’s Stolen Vehicles Intelligence Unit.

The team of three salvaged a record 626 vehicles and parts worth £14million last year, a 30 per cent increase on 2021.

However, this success has come with a rise in car thefts.

The most expensive one-off salvaged was a January 2021 Rolls-Royce Dawn, valued at £350,000. It was trapped with parts from eight other stolen Range Rovers in a container en route to Dubai.

PC Paul Gerrish from the unit said: “It’s getting hotter. It’s a lucrative market.

“We intercepted some containers where the front ends of the vehicles were exported to Dubai.”

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