Relay Attacks Now Cause 70 Percent of Car Thefts and Push Up Everyone’s Premiums

Relay theft, where thieves use cheap electronic equipment to copy the signal from a key fob sitting inside a house, now accounts for around 70% of all stolen vehicles in the UK, according to the Association of British Insurers. In London that figure runs even higher. The attack takes seconds, needs no forced entry, and leaves owners with no idea anything happened until the car is gone from the driveway.

Every driver is paying for it, not just theft victims

The cost of this crime does not stay with the drivers whose cars get taken. Insurers pool the cost of theft claims across every policyholder, and the ABI’s own claims data shows why premiums have been under pressure. The average payout for theft of or from a vehicle reached £11.8k in the most recent quarter the ABI has published in detail, part of a record £3.1 billion paid out in motor claims across a single quarter. Insurers settled 669,000 claims in that period, 5% more than the previous quarter.

A driver who has never had a car stolen, drives carefully and lives nowhere near a crime hotspot still sees their renewal quote shaped by what happens to their neighbours’ cars. That is how motor insurance works, but it means a crime wave driven by a specific piece of cheap electronic kit is landing as a flat tax on everyone with a keyless car, rather than a cost borne only by the minority who get targeted.

Drivers know the risk but do not feel protected

A Thatcham Research survey found that 78% of drivers are worried about their vehicle being stolen, and 43% pointed to a lack of effective deterrents as the main reason. That is a striking gap between how exposed people feel and what most manufacturers fit as standard. Many keyless models sold in the past decade still ship without motion-sensing key fobs or automatic signal cut-off, the two features that make a relay attack far harder to pull off.

Thatcham Research runs a security rating that tests how new models stand up to relay attacks and other theft methods, grading them from one to five stars. It is a useful check before buying, but it does nothing for the millions of keyless cars already on the road that were built before the rating existed or that scored poorly when new.

A new law targets the equipment, not just the crime

Parliament introduced a new offence this year covering the sale, possession and supply of signal jammers and relay amplification devices, the kit used to carry out these attacks. Thatcham Research welcomed the move, arguing that going after the equipment supply chain has more chance of denting theft numbers than pricing alone. Enforcement is still in its early stages, and the devices in question are small, cheap to make and easy to order from overseas sellers, so the practical effect on theft rates will take time to show up in the claims data.

Why an unrecovered car costs more than a crash

A car damaged in a crash usually gets repaired or, if it is written off, sold for salvage, which recovers some of the payout for the insurer. A car taken by relay thieves and never found is a different kind of loss. The insurer pays the full agreed value with nothing to recover against it, and recovery rates on relay-stolen vehicles are low, as the cars are often shipped abroad, broken for parts or fitted with cloned plates within hours of being taken. That total-loss pattern is a large part of why theft claims carry such a high average payout compared with the average repair bill for crash damage.

Certain models are targeted more than others. Thieves favour cars that are quick to resell, whether whole or broken into parts, and popular SUVs and premium hatchbacks tend to top the theft league tables year after year. Thatcham Research’s star ratings are published model by model, so it is worth checking your own car’s score even if you bought it new and assumed it came with strong security fitted as standard.

What actually stops a relay attack

Security engineers who study these attacks are consistent on what works. A Faraday pouch or box that blocks your key fob’s signal at home stops the relay method outright, as there is no signal left to capture. A steering wheel lock adds a visible physical barrier that pushes a thief toward an easier target. A Thatcham-approved tracker, rated S5 or S7, does not stop the theft but massively improves the odds of recovery, and insurers reward that with a premium discount.

Where the pressure lands next

None of this is likely to ease quickly. The ABI’s 10-point roadmap on motor insurance affordability lists tackling vehicle theft as one of its core aims alongside cracking down on fraud and uninsured driving, but insurers themselves say progress depends on manufacturers fitting better security as standard and on police resources keeping pace with a crime that has become largely contactless and low-risk for the people carrying it out. Until arrest and prosecution rates for relay theft rise to match the scale of the losses, insurers will keep pricing the risk into every renewal rather than only the ones who fall victim.

For drivers, that means the gap between a well-protected car and a poorly protected one is only going to widen. A five-minute check of your car’s security rating, and a five-pound Faraday pouch, are now doing more to hold your premium down than almost any other single step available to an ordinary driver.

How to Fight Back

Buy a Faraday pouch for your key fobs and use it every night, including for a spare key kept in a kitchen drawer near an exterior wall. This single step blocks the signal thieves need and costs a fraction of an insurance excess.

Check your car’s Thatcham security rating before you renew cover or buy a replacement, and ask your insurer directly whether fitting an S5 or S7 tracker would lower your premium. Many insurers will not raise this option unprompted, so it is worth asking rather than waiting to be offered a discount.

Park in a garage or a well-lit spot facing your house if you cannot fit off-street parking, and fit a visible steering lock even on a car with an alarm. Thieves working a street at night are looking for the fastest target, and visible extra security is often enough to send them elsewhere.

Ask your dealer or manufacturer whether a software update is available that adds motion-sensing sleep mode to your key fob. Several manufacturers rolled out free updates after early relay attacks made headlines, and not every owner of an affected model has had the fix applied.

If you spot a signal jamming or relay device advertised for sale online, report it. The new offence covering supply and possession of this equipment gives police a route to act on tip-offs that did not exist before this year.

Finally, keep a record of your car’s security features when you take out or renew a policy, alarm brand, tracker fitment, locked garage or driveway, and check that the insurer has logged it correctly. A mismatch between what you have fitted and what your policy shows on file is a common reason theft claims get delayed at the point you need the money fastest.

For more on how theft and claims costs are shaping premiums this year, see our coverage of the rise in vehicle theft across the UK.

Sources:

• ABI, “Motor premiums fall – but repair and theft costs keep revving up claims” (13 August 2025): https://www.abi.org.uk/news/news-articles/2025/7/motor-premiums-fall—but-repair-and-theft-costs-keep-revving-up-claims/
• ABI, “Motor premiums remain stable, but cost of repairs still high” (30 April 2026): https://www.abi.org.uk/news/news-articles/2026/4/motor-premiumsremainstablebutcost-ofrepairsstill-high/
• Insurance Edge, “Thatcham Research Welcomes New Offences on Car Theft Tech Devices” (1 May 2026): https://insurance-edge.net/2026/05/01/thatcham-research-welcomes-new-offences-on-car-theft-tech-devices/