Vehicle thefts in the Maltese Islands are on the rise with the total number of stolen cars almost doubling in just two years. Most of these thefts happened in the harbour region with less than half of these vehicles being recovered.

Details on the specific type of crime were divulged by the National Statistics Office as part of the Trasport Statistics report covering 2022. It transpires that during the period under review a total of 309 vehicles were stolen of which 134 where recovered. In most cases the thefts involved passenger cars which accounted to 164, followed by motorcycles, quad bikes and ATVs (110) and commercial vehicles (35).

From a geographic perspective, the regions most prone to this type of crime were those which are the most populated meaning the northern and southern harbour areas. In the northern harbour region which incorporates Ħamrun, Pietà, Santa Venera, Birkirkara, Qormi, Swieqi, Pembroke, St Julian’s, Sliema, Gżira, Ta’ Xbiex and San Ġwann, 108 vehicles were stolen. However, when analysed by locality, St Paul’s  Bay topped the list with 29 vehicles, followed by Paola (19), Qormi (16), Birkirkara and Gżira (14 each).

The safest localities were in Gozo and the Western District (Dingli, Balzan, Lija, Attard, Żebbuġ, Iklin, Mdina, Mtarfa, Rabat, Siġġiewi) which reported the lowest number of stolen vehicles with 13 each.

According to the NSO the worst months in terms of car theft risk were December (53) while the safest was February (10).

Looking at the wider picture, it seems that the increase in population is correlated to an increase in car thefts. In 2020, 172 vehicle thefts were reported of which 85 were recovered. Given that the total number of vehicles in that year was 402,427, the rate of thefts was of 0.043% per vehicle while the rate of recovery was of 49.4%.

In 2021, the number of cars stolen rose to 243 which accounted to 0.059% of the entire fleet, of which the rate of recovery went down to 38.9%.

By 2022, a trend emerged whereby the thefts rose to 309 which accounted to 0.073% while those recovered amounted to 43.4%

Though the number of thefts are still marginal, the increase will nonetheless fuel a degree of concern especially for those living in the locality which are notoriously renown for such crime.