" Stolen car plates help fuel theft "
RISING petrol prices have led to a huge
increase in the number of number plates being stolen from car parks across
Sydney as motorists search for ways to avoid paying for petrol, the latest
figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reveal.
While assaults, especially in Sydney's
inner-city pubs, are stable, parked cars are being targeted by number-plate
thieves at shopping centres, railway stations and hospitals.
The bureau's director, Don Weatherburn, said
number plates were the second most common items stolen from cars, behind money
but ahead of once popular items such as iPods, mobile phones, e-tags and in-car
navigation systems.
Dr Weatherburn said there was a direct link
between rising petrol prices and plate theft.
Thieves were concealing their own number
plates with stolen ones so they could drive away from service stations without
paying for petrol, he said.
"People are stealing motor vehicle plates for
one reason - to commit other crimes," Dr Weatherburn said.
"As [offenders] drive away from a crime, CCTV
footage only gets a photo of a stolen number plate. There is a very close
relationship between the number of plates stolen and petrol theft.
"As the petrol prices go up, the number of
thefts of number plates goes up with it and the number of petrol thefts jumps."
A 10 cent price increase for a litre of petrol
would lead to an extra 120 incidents of petrol theft a month, Dr Weatherburn
said.
The number of vehicle break-ins in car parks
in inner Sydney in 2006-07 was 84 per cent higher than in 2005-06. In central
western Sydney the increase was 77 per cent, the bureau's research shows.
Sydney's worst car park is Westfield
Parramatta, which had a 340 per cent increase in theft from cars since 2005,
followed by Wilson Harbourside Darling Harbour, Macarthur Square Shopping
Centre, Castle Towers Shopping Centre and Seven Hills station.
Most thefts from parked cars were
"opportunistic crime", Dr Weatherburn said, but number plates were a particular
target.
Dr Weatherburn noted that there were no
separate statistics for alcohol-related crime in NSW nor records of alcohol
consumption.
"If you're a person who's worried about
alcohol-related violence, there is reason for concern. You would not be well
advised to get drunk and wander around the inner-city streets …"
The NSW Police Commissioner, Andrew Scipione,
agreed that alcohol-related crime was worsening.
"It's something that isn't going away; in fact
it's getting worse."
The Opposition police spokesman, Mike
Gallacher, said an exodus of police officers from the force meant there were
fewer available to patrol crime hot spots such as car parks and pubs.
"The police website shows 103 officers left in
February, the largest monthly exodus since July 2007," he said.
"It is no longer good enough for this Iemma
Government to put its head in the sand and pretend it is just natural
attrition."
Source: [ smh ]
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