Police discover shipping container in Milton Keynes filled with stolen cars ready to be sent to Africa

A tracker on a stolen car led police to make a bizarre discovery this week.

Two officers from the Thames Valley Police Rural Crime Taskforce followed a tracker activation on a Toyota RAV4 that had been reported stolen in the city.

It led them to a location in Calverton, just outside Stony Stratford, where there was a large shipping container.

The Toyota was found inside the container, along with three other stolen vehicles, carefully packed in with old mattresses.

A TVP spokesperson said: “The container was set to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo next week.”

All the vehicles have now been seized and will be forensically examined while police complete their enquiries.

Police published the story, along with photos of the bright orange shipping container, on their social media today, and the post led to congratulations from readers.

"Just goes to show, the police only need to get lucky once,” said one man. “Well done to TVP Milton Keynes for undoubtedly interrupting what seems to have been a well orchestrated organised operation.”

In 2021 motor insurers Direct Line carried out special research into stolen cars that were being shipped abroad from the UK.

They found stolen vehicles worth £2.96 million had been located at three UK ports during the year – a 112 per cent increase on 2020.

Range Rovers made up nearly two fifths (38 per cent) of all cars taken by convicted car thieves, which suggests a rise in cars stolen to order

Cyprus was the most commonly identified destination for the vehicles, with 37% of them heading there.

A fifth (19 per cent) were destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo, while Ghana (11 per cent) and the UAE (six per cent) were other common destinations.

Vehicle theft has risen alarmingly over recent years. Yet Direct Line found only 60% of cars have car alarms, while 38% have steering locks and just 17% have GPS trackers.

Vehicles parked in public car parks were most likely to attract the attention of car thieves. Worryingly, the second most likely place for a car to be targeted was found to be on-street parking immediately outside the owner’s property.