Catalytic Converter Theft - 1333/19

Date Responded 10 December 2019

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

  1. Please may I have a breakdown in numbers of catalytic converter thefts for the last five years? A year on year breakdown of the number reported would be ideal.
  2. How many arrests have been made (year on year, for the last five years) for catalytic converter theft/ the damage associated with the crime?
  3. How many of the above have led to charges and/ or prosecutions?
  4. Has one area been more prolific/ affected by this type of theft than another across your patch?
  5. Any generic advice on the avoidance of catalytic converter theft would be appreciated.

In Response:

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

Please note that we have include statistics for HO code 045/10 - Theft from Motor Vehicle.  It should be noted that 2019 goes up to 03/12/2019. All other periods are a full year period.

I have taken "areas" to mean our district areas.

  1. Please see the below table:

Location

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019*

Total

Gateshead

 

1

 

 

1

2

Newcastle

2

1

2

7

2

14

North Tyneside

 

1

 

1

2

4

Northumberland

3

 

 

1

4

8

South Tyneside

 

1

 

1

 

2

Sunderland

 

 

 

 

1

1

Total

5

4

2

10

10

31

 

*Data up to 3 December 2019   

2.There has been one arrest made in 2015.  No other arrests have been made.

3.There has been one charge in 2015.  There have been no other charges.

4.Please refer to the table at point 1.

5.As the information you have requested is accessible by other means I have not provided you with a copy of the information and will rely on Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  You should therefore consider this a refusal for your request.

I have provided an explanation to this exemption below.

Section 21 (1) - Information accessible by other means

Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant is exempt information.

A simple search of the internet will provide you with a response to this part of your request.

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.

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