Keyless car thefts are on the rise across the UK, with criminals now able to copy your fob outside your home as you sleep and drive off in just a matter of minutes
British drivers have been given a ‘wake-up call’ after a shocking video showed the moment a woman’s car was stolen by thieves who cloned her keys outside her home as she slept.
Gadgets which copy signals from keyless fobs are now being used by criminal gangs to steal vehicles across the UK – with owners saying they had “no idea” that modern cars could be stolen this way.
In one alarming piece of doorbell footage from this summer, a masked man is seen tracing the outside wall of victim Abbie Brookes-Morris’s home in Wolverhampton late at night with one of the devices – before calmly unlocking her car with it and driving away a few seconds later.
Her car was later found abandoned, she said, but has been rendered unusable because of the way it was stolen.
Ms Brookes-Morris said the theft of her car felt like an “invasion” – and said it took them just “two minutes in total to arrive, look at the car, get the signal and leave.”
Similar thefts have been reported in other parts of the country, and this week Nottinghamshire Police urged the public to help them track down two people after a BMW was stolen from a driveway in the middle of the night in the village of Awsworth using a keyless device.
‘This is a wake-up call’
Jake Lambert, temporary car insurance expert at Tempcover, told the Mirror that growing reports of keyless car theft were “a wake-up call for all drivers that car crime is evolving, becoming more organised, and rapidly executed”.
Attacks carried out using the devices, called relay amplifiers, are defeating factory-fitted security “in minutes”, he said, despite claims from car manufacturers that keyless systems are impenetrable. Relay amplifiers are bought and sold by criminals online for more than £20,000 each, with some organised criminals known to lend them among themselves.
The government’s Crime and Policing bill – which this week was debated in the House of Lords at committee stage – is to create a new offence banning the possession or distribution ‘vehicle theft equipment’, carrying a maximum sentence of five years. This is to include relay devices, as well as ‘signal jammers’ that prevent cars being tracked once they are stolen.
What can I do to stop my keys being cloned?
Car security expert Mr Lambert said he “strongly advises all keyless car owners to invest in simple, high-impact prevention” tactics, such as keeping fobs in a Faraday pouch or signal-blocking box. You can also try more old-fashioned anti-theft methods, such as a visible steering wheel lock.
“The first line of defence is taking low-cost, proactive steps and ensuring your insurance policy, even if temporary, is fully comprehensive and up-to-date to cover the cost of this modern threat”, he added.
According to the 2022 to 2023 Crime Survey for England and Wales, remote locking devices were used in 40% of thefts of vehicles, while the Metropolitan Police Service estimates that signal jammers are used in approximately 60% of all vehicle thefts in London. A total of 23,189 cars were reported stolen in the UK in the first half of 2025, according to DVLA records, though no figures were provided regarding the method used.
