Police have arrested four men after parts of suspected stolen vehicles were recovered in Essex.
Officers discovered a large haul of suspected parts of stolen vehicles and high value goods in containers after being called to an address in Askews Farm Lane in Grays.
Three men – two aged 19 and one 25, all from London – were arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
A man, 49, from Aveley, was also arrested at a separate location as part of the investigation.
All four have been released on bail until April 11.
Officers spent a total of 15 hours at the scene identifying and recovering parts.
Essex Police said that its Stolen Vehicle Intelligence Unit (SVIU) recovered more than 700 stolen vehicles with a combined value of £27 million last year.
Since the start of 2021, more than 1,800 vehicles worth £58.5m have been identified and recovered.
The team has also investigated 106 “chop shops” - garages where stolen cars are dismantled or given false identities.
On Tuesday, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan warned car manufacturers to fix “security vulnerabilities” in new cars to stop them from being “exploited” by criminals.
The latest data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that vehicle thefts have risen by 7.7 per cent in London in the 12 months up to September 2023 compared with the year before.
In a letter to car manufacturers, Mr Khan said that customers were “increasingly becoming victims of vehicle theft due to the security vulnerabilities in modern vehicles that are being exploited by criminals”.
The letter was addressed to senior car industry figures including the CEOs of Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Ford.
Data published last month by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) revealed that the Ford Fiesta was the UK’s most stolen car last year.
