Crown Courts Jailed Two Gangs for Stealing 65 Cars Worth £600,000 in Relay Attacks

• Two separate gangs were jailed this year after courts heard they stole a combined 65 cars worth more than £600,000 using relay devices that clone a key fob’s signal.
• The equipment needed to carry out a relay attack sells online for under £100, and it works on any car with keyless entry, not just the German and Japanese models the gangs targeted.
• A Faraday pouch costing around £6 and a steering wheel lock can stop the attack outright, according to Thatcham Research, but most keyless car owners still do not use either.

A £600,000 Crime Spree Built on a Signal Theft That Takes Seconds

Two gangs operating hundreds of miles apart were jailed this year for stealing dozens of cars between them, and in both cases the method was the same. One person stood near the owner’s front door with a device that picks up the radio signal from a key fob sitting on a hallway table or kitchen counter. A second device, held by an accomplice next to the car, repeats that signal to the vehicle’s receiver. The car reads it as the real key, the doors unlock, and the engine starts. The owner never has to go near their key fob, and the whole process can take under 60 seconds.

At St Albans Crown Court, Aurimas Sarkis, 29, and a second man were sentenced to 49 months and 58 months after admitting to stealing 25 high-value vehicles, including BMWs and Mercedes, between October and December last year. Police valued the thefts at more than £600,000 across Hertfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. At Preston Crown Court, a separate gang of five men received a combined 13 years for stealing around 40 vehicles across Lancashire and Merseyside using the same relay method.

Why Any Keyless Car Is a Target, Not Just the Models in the Headlines

Both gangs went after premium German marques as the resale value made the risk worthwhile, but the vulnerability itself has nothing to do with brand or price. Any car fitted with a passive keyless entry system, where the key unlocks and starts the car without the owner pressing a button, broadcasts a low-level signal that a relay device can pick up and extend. Thatcham Research, the body that sets insurance security ratings for new cars, has flagged keyless entry as a weak point across the industry for several years, and newer models now carry individual theft-risk ratings for exactly this reason.

The equipment itself is not specialist kit smuggled in from abroad. Signal relay and amplifier devices are sold openly online, often marketed for legitimate uses such as vehicle diagnostics, and a basic setup can be bought for under £100. That price point is part of why police forces have struggled to stop the method spreading: the barrier to entry for a would-be thief is lower than it has ever been, while the potential haul, a car worth £30,000 or £40,000, makes the arithmetic attractive to organised groups.

What a Faraday Pouch Actually Does and Why Most Owners Still Skip It

A Faraday pouch is a small case lined with metallic fabric that blocks radio signals from passing in or out. Put a keyless fob inside one and a relay device sitting outside your front door has nothing to pick up, as the fob cannot broadcast through the shielding. Thatcham Research has tested pouches and found that a genuine one, bought from a reputable seller, blocks the signal reliably. A good pouch costs around £6 to £15, and a steering wheel lock, the kind that clamps across the wheel and makes the car undriveable even if it starts, adds a second physical barrier for under £30.

even as that low cost, uptake remains patchy. Many keyless car owners either are not aware their fob is vulnerable or assume manufacturer security updates have already closed the gap. Some car makers have introduced motion-sensing fobs that go to sleep when not moved for a set period, which cuts the window a relay attack has to work in, but older keyless systems and many current models do not have this feature, and owners rarely know whether theirs does without checking the handbook or asking a dealer directly.

What to Check on Your Own Car This Week

Owners can check whether their model carries a Thatcform-style theft risk rating through Thatcham Research’s vehicle security ratings, which are free to search by make and model. If the car has passive keyless entry, storing the fob in a Faraday pouch overnight, away from the front door and any exterior wall, removes the opportunity for a relay attack entirely. A steering lock is a visible deterrent on top of that, and some insurers now offer small premium discounts for fitting one, so it is worth asking at renewal rather than assuming it makes no difference.

For anyone who has already been targeted, the advice from both police forces involved in these cases is the same: report it immediately, keep any CCTV or doorbell camera footage before it is overwritten, and inform the insurer that the car was taken using a suspected relay attack, as this affects how the claim is investigated and can speed up a payout. Vehicles fitted with a tracking device, separate from the manufacturer’s own system, were recovered at a far higher rate in both police force areas than those without one, according to figures the forces released alongside the sentencing.

The sentences handed down at St Albans and Preston will not stop relay theft on their own. The devices remain legal to sell for diagnostic use, the method still works on millions of cars already on the road, and the gangs caught this year are unlikely to be the last. For individual owners, the practical defence costs less than a tank of petrol and takes five minutes to put in place, which makes it one of the few places in motoring where the gap between the size of the risk and the cost of avoiding it is this wide.

How Insurers Treat a Relay Theft Claim Differently

Telling your insurer that a car was taken using a suspected relay attack rather than simply reporting it stolen can change how quickly a claim moves. Insurers increasingly ask specifically whether a vehicle had keyless entry and whether there is any sign the key fob itself was used, as a theft with no forced entry and no triggered alarm points strongly to a relay method rather than a hotwire or smash-and-grab. That distinction affects the investigation, as it rules out the owner leaving the car unlocked or a spare key being used, both of which insurers check for before paying out on a theft claim. Keeping the original two key fobs that came with the car, and being able to hand both to the insurer, speeds this process up considerably, as a missing second key raises questions an insurer has to resolve before settling.

Police forces in both Hertfordshire and Lancashire, where the two gangs operated, reported that cars fitted with an aftermarket tracking device, separate from anything built in by the manufacturer, were recovered within hours in the large majority of cases, against a recovery rate for untracked cars that was far lower. A tracker typically costs between £200 and £400 fitted, plus a small annual subscription, and several insurers offer a discount on comprehensive cover for cars that have one fitted, which can offset some of that cost over a few years of ownership. For owners of the specific models most often targeted by relay gangs, usually higher-value SUVs and executive saloons from German and Japanese manufacturers, that combination of a tracker, a Faraday pouch and a steering lock is now treated by many insurers as close to the standard expectation rather than an optional extra.

Sources:

• Gang jailed for stealing 40 vehicles using relay device technology
• Drivers urged to boost car security after 25 vehicles stolen in relay attacks