Motorists Face Tax on Stolen Cars

The Daily Mail, 9 May 2007, advised that millions of motorists will have to pay higher insurance premiums after the Government increased the "tax" on the recovery of stolen and broken-down cars to £150 and for HGV's to as much as £9,000.

A consultation published in May 2007, revealed that the charge to recover a car or motorbike may increase by +45% from £105 to £150. The daily bill for storage could also rise from a standard £12 to £20 per day inside the M25, or £15 outside the London orbital.

There are about 230,000 cars stolen in the UK each year, of which half are returned to their owners. This means tens of thousands of motorists - or their insurers - will be hit by these charges. It will be interesting to see how this effects the GPS based vehicle tracking and monitoring market in the coming period.

(c) James Slack, Daily Mail