04/06/2026
Victoria has higher vehicle crime insurance claims over stolen cars than all other states combined, shock new stats reveal.
And authorities say organised crime is a major factor behind the surge in claims.
Insurance Council of Australia data shows there were $243m in payouts from 12,500 claims last year, relating to stolen cars and theft from motor vehicles.
The total was more than double that of the next state, Queensland, where insurers covered $104.3m in claims.
It was also about $1.6m more than the rest of the states’ total sums combined.
Victoria was the only state where payouts rose year-on-year.
ICA chief executive Andrew Hall said there was a “serious problem” in Victoria.
“The most starting thing is how Victoria is heading in one direction and the rest of the country is going in the other,” he said.
“If we excluded the Victorian statistics every other state is doing something to address the problem and we’re seeing really good reductions elsewhere.”
Mr Hall said there was a fear residents in suburbs with higher rates of theft could be stung with higher premiums because of the crime risk.
“It means people will be looking at their policies for things like if they have their car stolen will they be given a new one while they wait for a new one and policies do offer all that but it costs more,” he said.
Rampant youth offending, organised crime involvement in exporting stolen cars en masse and the easy availability of cheap devices which override a car’s security system are the main factors driving Victoria’s extreme rates.
One organised crime investigator said he was not surprised by the comparison to other Australian jurisdictions.
“It’s indicative of this not being treated seriously as a crime,” he said.
One vehicle industry player said the ICA data showed clearly the organised crime component of the problem.
He said the numbers demonstrated that not only were more cars being stolen but models which fetched a greater return were being targeted.
Another police source said it was unclear how the increasing theft levels could be reversed any time soon.
“It’s been a consistent trend and it’s coming off a high base. It’s a lot of cars,” he said.
That source said on-board diagnostic devices which interfered with vehicle’s electronics were a factor in more than 40 per cent of the offences.
Melbourne’s southeast emerged as the state’s stolen car capital last year, with nearly 40 vehicles stolen a week from the City of Casey in 2025 — according to the Crime Statistics Agency.
Car thefts in Hume, in Melbourne’s north, also surpassed the CBD with 1801 recorded thefts — a jump of 83 per cent since 2023.
The Holden Commodore was the most commonly stolen car in Victoria last year — particularly those build between 2013 and 2017 with “push starts”.
There were 566 more Commodores reported stolen than the next most common model — the Toyota HiLux, Toyota Corollas, LandCruisers and RAV4 rounded out the top five most stolen cars.
Experts say thieves often “cut the horns” of the Commodores the night before to disable the alarm and run off with them the next day.
Cranbourne woman Jakki Kerr said this was the method used by a group of brazen thieves to steal her 2017 Commodore from her driveway earlier this year.
She said it was “sickening” to have it happen at home.
The victims of Commodore theft also included Collingwood Norm Smith medallist Bobby Hill whose Holden was stolen from Melbourne Airport in October last year.
Other ways crooks get into modern cars is through the use of on-board diagnostic gadgets, which are third party electronic devices that override a vehicle’s security system.
The cheap devices, which were once confined to the automotive industry, are freely available online and now commonplace among thieves.
Police estimate they are now a factor in 40 per cent of car thefts.
Most stolen cars in Victoria
1. Holden Commodore
2. Toyota HiLux
3. Toyota Corolla
4. Toyota LandCruiser
5. Toyota RAV4
6. Toyota Camry
7. Nissan Navara
8. Ford Falcon
9. Toyota Prado
10. Nissan Patrol
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