Caravan crime
About 1600 caravans are stolen each year. The police have around 10,000 unsolved thefts on their books. Many of these stolen caravans then turn up abroad.
What to do?
There is a security check scheme available to people purchasing caravans.
CRiS is the Caravan Registration & Identification Scheme, by the National Caravan Council.
All caravans manufactured since 1992 by NCC members are recorded on the CRiS database. For older caravans or imports there's a fee to register them.
A CRiS check will not only confirm the caravans true identity, but will also reveal if the caravan is subject to an HP agreement, reported stolen or been recorded as an Insurance Write-Off.
Another option are electronic trackers, which although expensive, can assist a speedier recovery.
This is reflected in the caravan insurance companies' willingness to offer discounts of up to 30% per year for caravans with trackers.
Have you had a caravan stolen? How do you secure your caravan? Let us know.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~02~RS~)
Comments
I was told a story of someone who had their caravan stolen and it was easily retrieved the same day by the police.
The police did this by using a helicopter and idetifying the actual stolen caravan from the air because the caravan owner had painted his home postcode in LARGE BLACK LETTERS on the roof of his van.
The thieves were caught in the act...
What a great idea !
Complain about this comment
Best idea would be make people go to a hotel for a holiday, like normal people and then let ALL the caravan sites out to the various Travellers, who keep setting up all over the shop and flounting planning laws. As they want the freedom of the land, (who doesn't).
Let them move and STAY only on these places, pay a fair rent to stay there and then they could go from place to place and that way the owners of the sites would be able to get the same amount of money for rentals, enforce TIDY notices in the sites. AND the roads would be easier to drive along in the summer months without the caravan traffic.
If the Caravan site owners were a few quid out of pocket, the government could take them all over and the owners could be compensated and local councils wouldn't have to keep footing expansive legal costs enforcing the Law and providing land/people fill sites. Make it illegal to stop anywhere else. So no new sites need be established, live with the numerous ones out there. PLUS no theft of caravans, because there wouldn't be too many to nick. Try nickin' one off a traveller.
Eureka Johnson
Complain about this comment
The original post doesn't make it clear that there is a charge to do a CRiS HPI check.
With regard to recovering stolen caravans there is one problem with CRiS. The hidden datachip requires a specialist reader, there are only a limited number of these and they are not in the hands of the Police. They have to request the loan of one from the people who run the scheme for a specific operation. Also the database is only open to the Police at certain hours. It is therefore not really much use for the Police in terms of recovery.
For a number of years I have argued, within the caravan insurance industry, that we should have a proper national registration scheme so that the Police can access details from the Police National Computer 24 hours a day. I'm afraid that argument has fallen on deaf ears. I would be intersted in the thoughts of others on this idea.
Cheers
Phil Holden
http://www.caravanwise.co.uk/
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS