Times are hard and personal watercraft theft is up, meaning you need to be extra vigilant with your security. Jasmine Basha explains the best ways to stop PW theft.

Theft! Something we all fear.  According to the ‘Recorded Crime Figures’ and ‘British Crime Survey’, national theft was up over three per cent for 2008. The report ‘Crime in England Wales 2007 to 2008’ lists robberies as: “Seven per cent of all British crimes for the year and twelve per cent of all recorded crime.” Theft accounts for over an astounding £40 million for the UK boating industry in annual losses.

The website www.stolenboats.org.uk has a free database of all stolen boats and marine equipment in the UK. All reported robberies are verified with the National Police computer database. Statistics from claims filed with the Police as well as the Marine Insurance Industry show theft from 2006 to 2007 was reduced 20 per cent.

However, Jonathan Langford from Noble Marine Insurance, one of the largest marine insurers in the UK said: “The number of PW thefts reported to StolenBoats.org.uk during 2008 has fallen slightly against the number of thefts reported during 2007, however, we have seen a large increase in thefts in the final quarter of 2008, perhaps as a result of the general economic downturn.”

Watercraft stolen in 2007 were during a time of economic stability and are not reflective of the current turbulent financial crisis the world is facing today, now pushing theft claims to unprecedented numbers.

Jonathan Langford continues to explain: “Despite these annual figures suggesting a downward trend, the number of thefts reported in the last quarter of 2008 shows a big increase over the same period for 2007. We have had 18 PW thefts reported during the last quarter 2008 versus only 10 during the same quarter of 2007.” That is an astounding 80 per cent increase for just one quarter!