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Almost 100,000 thefts of catalytic converters have been recorded in three years, with criminals across the UK stealing 75 per day in 2022, new data obtained by Sky News reveals.

The emissions devices, which often contain valuable precious metals, are worth up to £600 on the black market. It is why in the 12 months from December 2021, criminals stole 28,000 catalytic converters.

CCTV shared with Sky News from police forces and victims of this crime shows how quick and brazen thieves are, stealing catalytic converters wherever they can find them at whatever time of day.

The knock-on effects and wide-ranging impact can be devastating.

Margaret Wright from Wigan has not just had it happen to her once, but three times in two years.

The Motability vehicle she shares with her husband was left unusable for weeks when the catalytic converter was stolen in September 2022.

She told Sky News: “It sounds really extreme to say I was on the edge the last time it happened, but I really was because we don’t earn a lot of money, we don’t have a great deal of things so for somebody to come along and in a matter of minutes do that, it changes your life. It impacts so hard and mentally it’s very hard to take.”

With a disabled husband and a 50-mile round trip to work, the impact of what seems like a minor crime has been immense.

“I feel so awful for my husband more than myself because it’s his lifeline,” Mrs Wright said. “I’ve got the ability to get buses and trains but for him, he can’t get out during the day. It’s very disabling for something that was there to help his mobility, that person is now again disabled.”

Margaret Wright from Wigan has had catalytic converters stolen three times in two years
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Margaret Wright from Wigan has had catalytic converters stolen three times in two years

Some 97,023 catalytic converters were stolen from the beginning of 2020 to 30 November 2022, according to OPAL, the National Intelligence Unit for Serious Organised Acquisitive Crime and a Sky News Freedom of Information request.

The worst affected area is London, but positive police action has seen thefts drop slightly in the capital since 2020.

Read more:
Police warn of rise in keyless car thefts
Police watchdog condemns low burglary and theft clear-up rates

The data alone may be alarming, but it has to be taken into account that this is a crime hugely underreported and in reality there are many more catalytic converters stolen than on record – meaning many more lives deeply impacted.

But the theft is only one element of a chain of crimes involving these devices which are so sought after.

James Kelly, head of the British Metal Recycling Association, told Sky News: “Inside catalytic converters there are this set of platinum metals: rhodium, palladium and platinum and they are extremely valuable.

“They can be up to £4,000 a troy ounce which is equivalent to about 31 grams and that could equate to about six or seven catalytic converters.”

James Kelly, head of the British Metal Recycling Association
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James Kelly, head of the British Metal Recycling Association

Because of their value they have become an attractive target for criminals and organised crime, it is why police forces are using covert operations to try to clamp down on the buying, selling and stealing of this car part.

Supt Mark Cleland is the UK police’s metal crime lead. He told Sky News: “Last year, in the first two weeks of an operation we reduced crime by 50% nationally. But still 30,000 offences over the last 12 months, and we need as much information about who is involved. Either the public have an idea or the waste industry has an idea.

“That information is absolutely critical to help us catch and lock up people. In another operation we recovered over 2,000 stolen catalytic converters, so we’re doing the work, we just need that critical intelligence and information to help do our jobs even better.”

Supt Mark Cleland is the UK police's metal crime lead
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Supt Mark Cleland is the UK police’s metal crime lead

Despite police efforts, the majority of catalytic converter thefts go unsolved and whilst it may be a lucrative crime for those involved, for a single mum of three whose car was targeted, the financial repercussions are crippling.

Claire Gregan had her catalytic converter stolen whilst her car was parked at university in Lancashire in November 2022.

She told Sky News: “They may as well have come in and ransacked the house because that car was my lifeline. It was a BMW 1 Series, it was 14 years old, it was worth £1,200. I don’t have much, I’m on my own with three children, putting myself through university to better our lives. And then you’re given a bill of nearly £1,000. Every way I looked for a solution, I was faced with more of a challenge financially.”

With the risk of a higher insurance premium and the chance of thieves targeting her car again, Ms Gregan scrapped the BMW and was forced to take a £4,000 loan to buy a new car.

She added: “They couldn’t have done anything worse. What they did in those few minutes, I’m probably not going to get back level with finances until summer 2023. It completely destroyed me and has left me in such a mess.”

Claire Gregan had her catalytic converter stolen whilst her car was parked at university in Lancashire in November 2022
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Claire Gregan

As the crime has risen, so too has the price to replace catalytic converters. It is something the AA has noticed as callouts for this problem are increasingly common.

Patroller Sean Sidley said: “It has a huge impact on people because these catalytic converters aren’t cheap to buy from the manufacturers.

“Some customers can fork out as much as £1,500 just to get their car back on the road. I’ve seen some dealerships that are taking quite a while to get them in stock. Getting them across to the UK from Asia has been quite difficult.”

Sean Sidley, AA patroller
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Sean Sidley, AA patroller

On the face of it, it may look like just a small offence, but these thefts are being carried out on a large scale. At every juncture of this crime, it is clear the criminals are not letting up – leaving victims helpless, vulnerable and with consequences often irreversible.

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Storm Bert: Father rescues son from sinking car as floods wreak havoc

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Storm Bert: Father rescues son from sinking car as floods wreak havoc

Tragedy almost struck a family in West Yorkshire after a father had to suddenly rescue his 11-month-old son from their flooded car.

Andre Randles, 22, was driving with baby Luca from Hebden Bridge to his father’s home in Todmorden to watch a football match on Saturday afternoon.

He was diverted away from his main route when he hit a dip and went “straight into a puddle of water”.

Speaking to Sky’s Shingi Mararike, Mr Randles said he thought it was a shallow puddle that he could drive through but soon his car began to float.

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Paige and Andre
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Andre Randles’ partner Paige Newsome said the incident was ‘really scary’

He called emergency services but soon “water started seeping in”.

“I thought I’m going to have to get out, I’m going to have to smash a window,” Mr Randles said.

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He wound down his and his son’s windows, and climbed out before rescuing his son.

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‘Devastating’ flooding in Wales

“The water was chest high, I held him up as high as I could to keep him out of the water.”

“It wasn’t raining so heavily, I’ve driven in much worse rain,” he added.

Mr Randles, a self-employed roofer who relies on the car for work, said he remained calm during the ordeal and was helped by the fact that Luca was asleep during the rescue.

Mr Randles’ partner Paige Newsome – who was not in the car at the time – said the incident was “really scary”.

“To think I could have actually lost them both – I don’t know how I would’ve lived,” she said.

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Resident feels ‘abandoned’ in floods

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The road has been flooding for at least two decades, the couple said.

“What is it going to take for the council to sort it out? Does a fatal incident have to happen? It’s been going on for years,” Ms Newsome said.

The couple are worried about affording another car as well as Christmas celebrations.

But Mr Randles said: “I’m grateful that we got out safely and that we can spend his first birthday and Christmas as a family.”

Storm Bert has brought more than 80% of November’s average monthly rainfall in less than 48 hours to some parts, the Met Office said.

Around 300 flood warnings and alerts are in place in England, with another 100 in Wales and nine in Scotland, as heavy rain and thawing snow bring more disruption across the UK.

A major incident was declared by Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council in South Wales after homes and cars were submerged in water.

‘It is devastating’

Gareth Davies, who owns a garage in Pontypridd, a town in Rhondda Cynon Taf, told Sky’s Dan Whitehead that flooding has put his small business “back to square one”.

As the River Taff burst its banks, the majority of the vehicles in Mr Davis’s garage were so damaged he says they will have to be written off.

Garage in wales destroyed by Storm Bert
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Mr Davies speaking to Sky’s Dan Whitehead in his flooded garage

Garage in wales destroyed by Storm Bert

“I am gutted,” he said, standing in his flooded garage, most of which is also covered in oil after a drum tipped over.

“How long is it going to take to sort out? I am going to lose money either way. I can’t work on people’s cars when I am trying to sort all of this out.

“It is devastating.”

Mr Davies said he has never had an issue with water coming into his garage until now.

Garage in wales destroyed by Storm Bert

Pointing to one car that had been hoisted into the air before water reached it, he said: “Lucky enough, I did come in this morning just to get that car up in the air.

“I don’t know what to say, I have been working flat out for two years to build this up and something like this happens, and it just squashes it all.

“This has put me back to square one.”

At least two to three hundred properties in South Wales have been affected by flooding, Councillor Andrew Morgan, leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf Borough Council, said on Sunday.

He said the affected buildings are a mixture of residential and commercial properties, after the weather turned out to be worse than what was forecast.

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MP behind assisted dying bill says she has ‘no doubts’ – as she rejects minister’s ‘slippery slope’ claim

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MP behind assisted dying bill says she has 'no doubts' - as she rejects minister's 'slippery slope' claim

The Labour MP behind the assisted dying bill said she has “no doubts” about its safeguards after a minister warned it would lead to a “slippery slope” of “death on demand”.

Kim Leadbeater told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that she has “huge respect” for Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, but that she doesn’t agree with her opinion.

In a strongly worded intervention ahead of Friday’s House of Commons vote, Ms Mahmood said the state should “never offer death as a service”.

She said she was “profoundly concerned” by the legislation, not just for religious reasons, which she has previously expressed, but because it could create a “slippery slope towards death on demand”.

Asked about the criticism, Ms Leadbeater said: “I have got a huge amount of respect for Shabana. She’s a very good colleague and a good friend.

“In terms of the concept of a slippery slope, the title of the bill is very, very clear.

“It is called the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. It cannot include anybody other than people who are terminally ill, with a number of months of their life left to live. It very clearly states that the bill will not cover anybody else other than people in that category.”

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Ms Leadbeater’s bill proposes legalising assisted dying for people with six months left to live, on the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge.

She wants people who are in immense pain to be given a choice to end their lives, and has included a provision in the legislation to make coercion a criminal offence.

The matter will be debated for the first time in almost 10 years on Friday, with MPs given a free vote, meaning they can side with their conscience and not party lines.

As a result, the government is meant to remain neutral, so the intervention of cabinet ministers has provoked some criticism from within party ranks.

Labour peer Charlie Falconer told Sky News Ms Mahmood’s remarks were “completely wrong” and suggested she was seeking to impose her religious beliefs on other people.

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Kevin Hollinrake says he will be in favour of the assisted dying bill

Read more:
Mum diagnosed with cancer tells of the day her life changed ahead of assisted dying vote

Why is assisted dying so controversial and where is it legal?

Asked about his comments, Ms Leadbeater said it was important to remain “respectful and compassionate throughout the debate” and “for the main part, that has been the case”.

She added: “The point about religion does come into this debate, we have to be honest about that. There are people who would never support a change in the law because of their religious beliefs.”

Ms Leadbeater went on to say she had “no doubts whatsoever” about the bill, which has also been objected by the likes of Health Secretary Wes Streeting and former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown.

Asked if she has ever worried about people who don’t want to die taking their own lives because of the legislation, Ms Leadbeater said: “No, I don’t have any doubts whatsoever. I wouldn’t have put the bill forward if I did.

“The safeguards in this bill will be the most robust in the world, and the layers and layers of safeguarding within the bill will make coercion a criminal offence.”

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Mum diagnosed with cancer tells of the day her life changed ahead of assisted dying vote

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Mum diagnosed with cancer tells of the day her life changed ahead of assisted dying vote

There is a lot at stake this week for Sophie Blake, a 52-year-old mother to a young adult, who was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May 2023.

As MPs vote on whether to change the law to allow assisted dying, Sophie tells Sky News of the day her life changed.

“One night I woke up and as I turned I felt a sensation of something in my breast actually move, and it was deep,” she says, speaking from her home in Brighton.

“Something fluidy, a very odd sensation. I woke up and made a doctor’s appointment.”

Sophie underwent an ultrasound followed by a biopsy before she was taken to a room in the clinic and offered water.

“They said, ‘a hundred percent, we believe you have breast cancer’.”

But it was the phone call with her mother that made it feel real.

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“My mum had been waiting at home. She phoned me and said ‘How is it darling?’ and I said ‘I’ve got breast cancer,’ and it was just that moment of having to say it out loud for the first time and that’s when that part of my life suddenly changed.”

Sophie says terminal cancers can leave patients dreading the thought of suffering at the end of their lives.

“What I don’t want to be is in pain,” she says. “If I am facing an earlier death than I wanted then I want to be able to take control at the end.”

Assisted dying, she believes, gives her control: “It’s an insurance policy to have that there.”

Read more:
Why is assisted dying so controversial and where is it legal?
UK on ‘slippery slope’ Justice Minister says ahead of vote

On Friday, the government is set to debate the issue before voting on it. Sophie hopes they’ll back the proposal.

“It should be my choice to be able to have a compassionate death,” she says.

There has been much debate about the bill since details about how it would work were published earlier this month.

On Friday, former prime minister Gordon Brown became the latest senior political figure to share his opinion on the matter, coming out as against the legalisation of assisted dying, based on his experience of his own daughter’s death.

Disability rights advocate Lucy Webster warns that for people like Sophie to have that choice, others could face pressure to die.

Lucy Webster, disability rights advocate
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Lucy Webster

“All around the world, if you look at places where the bill has been introduced, they’ve been broadened and broadened and broadened,” she tells Sky News.

Lucy is referring to countries like Canada and Netherlands, where eligibility for assisted deaths have widened since laws allowing it were first passed.

Lucy, who is a wheelchair user and requires a lot of care, says society still sees disabled people as burdens which places them at particular risk.

“I don’t know a single disabled person who has not at some point had a stranger come up to us and say, ‘if I were you, I’d kill myself’,” she says.

The assisted dying bill, she says, reinforces the view that disabled lives aren’t worth living.

“I’ve definitely had doctors and healthcare professionals assume that my quality of life is inherently worse than other people’s. That’s a horrible assumption to be faced with when [for example] you’ve just gone to get antibiotics for a chest infection. There are some really deep-seated medical views on disability that are wrong.”

Under the plans, a person would need to be terminally ill and in the final six months of their life, and would have to take the fatal drugs themselves.

Among the safeguards are that two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and that a High Court judge must give their approval. But the bill does not make clear if that is a rubber-stamping exercise or if judges will have to investigate cases including risks of coercion.

Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School, says there’s a very big question about whether courts have the room to take on such a task.

Julian Hughes, honorary professor at Bristol Medical School
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Julian Hughes

“At the moment in the family division I understand there are 19 judges and they supply 19,000 hours of court hearing in a year, but you’d have to have an extra 34,000,” he explains.

“We shouldn’t fool ourselves and think that there wouldn’t be some families who would be interested in getting the inheritance rather than spending the inheritance on care for their elderly family members. We could quickly become a society in which suicide becomes normalised.”

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