A recent news report on BBC radio revealed the increasing number of thefts across Britain of catalytic converters.
The figures have more than quadrupled in the last two years, as the price of scrap metal has risen massively. In the first five months of this year more catalytic converters were stolen than in the whole of last year alone. The worst area affected was the south east, with more than 2,300 being stolen.
Oli cooper, a trained vehicle technician, stated that the thieves were targeting the catalytic converters because inside the converter is a honeycomb structure which gases pass through on the way out of the exhaust. This honeycomb structure contains precious metals such as gold and platinum, which explains why such high numbers have been stolen.
It will usually take a fully trained technician around three hours to run through the safe removal of a catalytic converter. Steve Wilkinson, who runs his own gardening business in Kent had his catalytic converter stolen from his work van. Due to the theft, Steve was forced to take two days unpaid leave from his job, resulting in a huge loss of earnings. In addition to this, he was forced to pay out more than £200 to have a new converter fitted onto his vehicle.
Paul Crowther, who is head of the metal theft department for the police is trying to put measures in place to prevent the theft of catalytic converters by working closely with manufactures of the product. He highlighted the saddest aspect of the spat of thefts – that for the sake of a few pounds profit for the thieves, hundreds of pounds are potentially being lost everyday by hard working members of the public.