City worker loses £72k Volvo to hackers using scanning device twice in a year

Jas Hara says suspects used a scanning device to unlock his Volvo XC90
NIGEL HOWARD ©
Magda Ibrahim29 November 2018
WEST END FINAL

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A City worker today told how car-hackers stole a £72,000 4x4 from his driveway — for the second time in a little more than a year.

CCTV captured the moment two suspects used a scanning device to unlock the Volvo XC90 before jumping in, hitting the start button and pulling away within 90 seconds.

Jas Hara said the same model was taken from his driveway in October last year using the same method.

He now plans to revert to a “bog-standard” car which uses an old-fashioned key. The 41-year-old said: “It’s terrible. We feel devastated. It is so distressing for it to happen not once but twice.”

CCTV of the suspects
Family handout

Mr Hara, an underwriter for an investment firm, and his 39-year-old wife Havinder, an expert in child health, took extra precautions for their second XC90.

They fitted it with a tracking device and installed CCTV cameras overlooking their drive in Hampden Way, Southgate, along with a video doorbell and motion sensors.

“We thought there was no way it could happen again, especially with all the precautions,” said the father of two. “These thieves are using a new technology more powerful than before.

“The only consolation is that eventually karma will come around to them.”

Mr Hara noticed the car was missing when he got up last Friday for his morning trip to the local gurdwara, or Sikh temple.

“Before we got the first Volvo we’d never had a new car but it’s something you aspire to. We’d worked really hard and wanted to enjoy it,” he said.

“Now I think we will stick with a bog-standard car, and I would rather use a normal key from now on.” The Met said nobody had been arrested for either theft and police were investigating.

Car-hacking, or “relay attack”, is said to have fuelled a surge in vehicle thefts. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show 89,000 cars were stolen in 2017, up from 57,000 the year before. The Association of British Insurers re-ported a record £271 million in theft claims in the first nine months of 2018. Keyless entry was cited as the “main driver” in the rise in offences.

The crime involves thieves using a “relay box” to pick up a signal from a real key. There have been calls to make it illegal to sell or own the boxes. Advice to car owners includes storing your keys in a metal-lined container, keeping them well away from the front of the house, and turning off their radio signal.

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