Millions of brits sleep with their keys
Friday, 13 May 2011
‘Car-proud’ owners petrified of rising threat of ‘car key burglaries’
More than 1.5 million motorists take their car keys to bed each night, following the dramatic rise in ‘car key burglaries’ in the UK, which resulted in over 200,000 stolen vehicles in the past 12 months.
The number of home break-ins where burglars target car keys is on the rise, according to swiftcover.com data. This is because without a key, it’s extremely difficult to steal a modern vehicle. Despite this rise, 4.5 million motorists leave their car keys next to their front door, in full view of prying thieves. Furthermore, a quarter (26 per cent) leave their main key in a bag or coat pocket; however, of the 1.5 million taking their keys to bed, the majority (75 per cent) are young men, precious of their car.
Robin Reames, claims director at swiftcover.com, explained: “Millions of motorists are so worried about car key burglaries that they’re resorting to taking their car keys to bed, but millions more are ignoring the dangers. Modern cars are extremely difficult to steal without a key, thanks to sophisticated security systems but the downside is that car key burglaries is now an increasing threat to UK motorists.
“Motorists who keep their keys on a surface near their front or back door are the easiest targets for burglars and may even be victims of car key fishing where thieves literally fish for the keys through the letterbox.”
The swiftcover.com research went on to reveal that regard for spare keys was even worse with three-quarters (76 per cent) not hiding it at all. One in four (27 per cent) keep theirs in a drawer while almost 750,000 motorists ‘didn’t have a clue’ where their spare key was.
Reames continued: “Where exactly you hide your key is up to you but taking your car key to bed may be a little extreme. It’s a case of taking a moment to look at your property from the point of view of a burglar and place your car keys in a safe place, out of view.”
-Ends-
Notes to Editors
Research based on a survey carried out by Lake Market Research during March 2011 of more than 1,000 respondents.
For press enquiries please contact:
Luke O’Mahony or Sean Williams
Brazil (PR agency for swiftcover.com)
020 7785 7383
swiftcover@agencybrazil.com
About swiftcover:
Based in Cobham, Surrey and employing more than 1,000 people, swiftcover.com started trading in June 2005 and was born out of a desire to revolutionise the general insurance market by making insurance quick and easy to use.
swiftcover.com offers car, home, travel and pet insurance online, and is the only insurer in Britain not to use call centres, which provides cost savings that can be passed directly onto the customer, keeping premiums low. swiftcover.com was named Best Value for Money Car Insurer in the UK in the 2010 Lovemoney.com awards.
This powerful operating model combined with successful marketing and competitive pricing has proven to be a tremendous success. In 2008 swiftcover.com achieved over half a million live policies and in May 2009 sold its millionth policy. swiftcover.com is considered to be one of the fastest-growing insurers in the UK and, as of February 2011, has more than 800,000 policy holders.
In 2007, AXA UK acquired swiftcover.com. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of AXA Insurance UK PLC which forms part of AXA Group.
About AXA:
AXA Group is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 216,000 employees serving 93 million clients. In 2010, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 91 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 3.9 billion. AXA had Euro 1,104 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2010.
The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISNFR 0000120628 – Bloomberg: CS FP – Reuters: AXAF.PA). AXA’s American Depository Shares are also quoted on the OTC QX platform under the ticker symbol AXAHY.
The Group is included in the main international SRI indexes, such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and FTSE4GOOD.
Our previous company performance is not a guide to how we may perform in the future.
Any opinions expressed in this media communication are made as at the date of this publication but are subject to change without notice.
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