• Motor vehicle theft is the taking of a motor vehicle unlawfully or without permission. It excludes damaging and tampering or interfering with motor vehicles. The theft of motor vehicle parts or contents is included under the offence category of other theft. Motor vehicle refers to cars, motorcycles, campervans, trucks, buses and plant/equipment.
• * There were 75,115 motor vehicles reported stolen to police in 2006, with 523 vehicles stolen per 100,000 registered vehicles. This represents a 7% decrease on the number of thefts recorded in 2005. On average, there was one MVT every seven minutes in Australia in 2006.

• In February 2006, motor vehicle theft decreased to the lowest monthly level recorded since 1995 with 5,890 motor vehicles reported stolen.
• The incidence of recorded monthly motor vehicle theft peaked in March 2001, with 12,651 cars recorded stolen in that month.
• Between March 2001 and December 2006 motor vehicle theft registered a 51% decrease. The overall decrease in the period 1995-2006 was 41%.
• Friday and Saturday evenings are the most popular periods for theft.
• In the period 1995-2006, the average recorded number of vehicles stolen per month was 9,621।

Location of motor vehicle theft, by type of location, 2006

b: Includes dwellings and other residential locations

c: Transport includes public car parks

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997-2007. Recorded crime, victims, Australia (various years; title varies). ABS cat. no. 4510.0. Canberra: ABS

• The majority of motor vehicle thefts occurred on the street/footpath (37%) or in some sort of residential location (34%).
• Only 8% of motor vehicle thefts occurred in what are classified as transport locations, such as car parks.