Tracker Press Release 3

10,000 STOLEN VEHICLES RECOVERED THANKS TO TRACKER

It's official, TRACKER is undeniably the UK's leading stolen vehicle recovery company having just retrieved its landmark 10,000th stolen vehicle. The £80,000 Mercedes SL500 had been with its owner for just three weeks when thieves broke into his house, helped themselves to the keys of his luxurious motor and drove it away.

Within seven hours however, the police had outdone the thieves. The Mercedes had been located in North West London and the owner, Mr Perkins*, once again had rightful possession of his pride and joy. This is the second Mercedes to be stolen in this neighbourhood in a matter of weeks. The first unfortunately did not have a TRACKER fitted and has not yet been found.

Mr Perkins, a company director from North London said, 'When I discovered my car had been stolen I was upset and angry, but the fact that I had TRACKER fitted was a great relief and I was over the moon that my Mercedes was returned to me undamaged the very next day.'

Since the mid nineties, vehicle crime has been falling steadily, but the 2002/03 British Crime Survey highlights that it is still a big problem with vehicle related crime accounting for one fifth of all reported crime, this equates to more than one car being stolen every two minutes. Mr Perkins was the victim of a trend of car crime that is on the increase - car key theft. Every month, TRACKER typically retrieves £1.2 million worth of vehicles that have been stolen in this way and on average 41% of all TRACKER fitted stolen vehicles that are recovered are taken with the owner's keys.

Michelle McLaughlin, marketing manager at TRACKER said, 'Since 1993, TRACKER has played an important role in reducing the number of vehicle thefts. The current value of the 10,000 vehicles we have retrieved stands at over £171 million; we have also helped the police to arrest more than 1,400 vehicle thieves.'

TRACKER is approved by 36 vehicle manufacturers and is operated by all the UK's 52 police forces. The systems have also been accredited by the Association of Chief Police Officers, the first stolen vehicle recovery company to achieve this status. TRACKER is also working in partnership with the Home Office to help to try and achieve the government target of reducing vehicle crime by 30% by 2004.

TRACKER's stolen vehicle recovery systems range includes TRACKER Retrieve where the owner contacts TRACKER if the vehicle is stolen and TRACKER Monitor where a remote sensor in the vehicle alerts TRACKER HQ if the vehicle is illegally moved. Both systems are operated via land based radio transmission, which means that if the car is hidden in a lock-up or container or is covered up, it can still be tracked. TRACKER Horizon operates as Monitor, but also utilises satellite positioning technology as well as land based radio transmission to provide the most comprehensive stolen vehicle tracking system available in the UK.

For more information call TRACKER Network on freephone 0500 090909 or log on to www.TRACKER.co.uk. TRACKER is also available from leading car dealerships and independent authorised retailers.