How Melbourne became car theft capital of the country

Updated June 4, 2026 — 11:12am,first published June 4, 2026 — 5:00am

Victoria is the car-theft capital of Australia, with more insurance claims for stolen cars lodged in Melbourne than all other capital cities combined last year.

Payouts for stolen cars in Victoria last year totalled $243 million across 12,500 claims, more than the rest of Australia put together, new data from the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) shows. It also found a car is stolen or broken into every 42 minutes in Victoria.

Victoria recorded a 25 per cent increase in the number of motor-theft insurance claims year-on-year, as well as a 37 per cent rise in total payouts. Claims in the other states fell by double digits, with Victoria alone bucking the trend. The sharpest rise was in Melbourne, with the number of claims in regional Victoria remaining steady.

In Melbourne, people made 10,400 claims for stolen cars last year, eclipsing the claims made in all other capital cities.

“A car is stolen or broken into every 42 minutes in Victoria. This level of crime is not acceptable,” said the council’s chief executive Andrew Hall, who represents the interests of Australian insurance companies.

The ICA data only includes cars that were insured, for which claims are made.

The wave of thefts in Victoria has fuelled a rise in premiums across the country, despite the number of claims falling in other states.

“The cost of Victoria’s car theft crisis doesn’t stop at the state border,” Hall said.

“With nearly half a billion dollars of insured claims for car theft nationally, and half of that now coming from Victoria, every insurance customer in Australia ultimately shares the burden through their premiums.”

Victoria Police data shows more than 32,000 cars were stolen in the state in 2025, the most since 2001. That was far higher than NSW (14,845) and Queensland (18,573). Since 2022, there has been a 96.9 per cent increase in the number of stolen cars, and an 83.97 per cent increase in the rate of stolen vehicles per 100,000 people in Victoria.

Stolen cars are generally used either by teenage criminals for joyrides who “post and boast” about it on social media, shipped overseas by criminal syndicates for profit, or used as “hotties” to enable firebombings and drive-by shootings.

Police said the major driver behind the surge in car thefts in Victoria was criminals increasingly using key-cloning devices to electronically override a car’s system. About 10,000 cars, or 30 vehicles a day, were stolen last year using that technology. Police did not respond to a question on why Victoria’s rat