In Austria, nearly 4,000 cars were stolen last year, with another 2,000 stolen from Austrian citizens while visiting neighbouring Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

United States and Canadian thieves have also been tempted by a $3,000 payment and a free flight home to hire vehicles on false credit cards and drive them to any of Austria's eastern neighbours. A total of 489 Austrian-registered cars were stolen in Hungary last year, 299 in Slovakiaand 232 in the Czech Republic.

Bizarrely, people in the Czech Republic who do not own or indeed never owned a car have recently been questioned by police about vehicles registered in their name. The country loses around 7,000 vehicles a year but many more stolen cars pass through as criminals inthe Republic have become acknowledged experts in changing vehicle identities.

As one Czech officer suggested, The quality of cloning on a stolen car, together with its accompanying forged documents, is so high that it is difficult to spot a fraud during a routine inquiry. Also there is no system of insurers writing off vehicles after an accident, facilitating the altering of the identities of stolen cars.

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Twin threat of virus and Brexit causing concern in the fight against car crime - Telegraph.co.uk