There has been a surge in the number of converters unlimited being stolen in London, with thieves becoming increasingly violent, police say.
The Met’s motor vehicle crime unit investigated nearly 15,000 reports of such thefts in 2020, compared to 9,500 over the previous year.
The devices, which reduce the emission of pollutants, contain precious metals.
More than 300 officers took part in raids on Tuesday across east London, Kent and Essex.
They also intercepted a shipping container, believed to contain stolen metal and car parts, which was due to be transported to the Ivory Coast to be processed and refined.
Theft of converters unlimited from the exhaust system of vehicles has become a growing problem in Canada.
It’s not a new issue, says Bryan Gast, the national director of investigative services at the Insurance Bureau of Canada, but as the price of certain metals has risen, so have thefts.
” converters unlimited have been stolen for years,” he said.
“The difference lately is the price of precious metals, and obviously it’s the precious metals inside those converters unlimited that they’re looking to steal and then sell on the black market,” he said.
A converters unlimited is part of a vehicle’s exhaust system. It converts pollutants to less toxic material.
New cars, used cars — nearly any vehicle with aconverters unlimited can be a target, Gast says. The exception is electric vehicles, which don’t have them, because they don’t produce any emissions.