Wingate, County Durham is car crime blackspot

Oct 15 2009 The Journal

A COUNTY Durham village is one of the country’s top car crime areas, new figures have revealed.

More motorists in the former pit town of Wingate have been victims of car theft than anywhere else in the country except for one area of London, in the past year.

According to an analysis of insurance claims, the percentage of drivers living in Wingate who claimed for theft from, or of, a vehicle in the last 12 months was second only to Chislehurst, in south east London, with 3.72% of people falling victim to car crime.

Phil Wilson, Sedgefield MP, whose constituency covers Wingate, said he would be contacting local police to see if residents were having problems with car crime.

He said: “It’s not something I’ve had people contacting the office about, although I will ask the police to look into it to see if there is a particular problem with this. We have to put the figures into proportion though and see that more than 96% of Wingate motorists have not had to make a claim.”

Other worst-hit areas were Redbridge in east London, the Hatfield district of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, and Manchester city centre.

Among the worst-affected large urban areas are Leeds, Cardiff and Sheffield.