A car thief has revealed how he can steal any vehicle in seconds using a £15,000 'readily available kit' which is legal to buy in the UK.
Former dirt racer Mark McCann hired a real life car thief to show him how he would steal a £60,000 Range Rover SVR from a Tesco's car park in an alarming video that lifts the lid on how the criminals operate.
In the video, posted to his YouTube channel with more than 240,000 subscribers, Mark meets a man dressed in a black balaclava who demonstrates how to use the 'state of the art' equipment to steal the four by four.
The thief claims the Range Rover model is 'one of the easiest' to steal, which he shows to be alarmingly true, as the man proceeds to unlock the car and start the engine supposedly within seconds of arriving in the car park.
Range Rovers have been revealed to be some of the most stolen cars in the UK with around one in every 100 targeted by thieves last year, according to exclusive MailOnline analysis.
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YouTuber Mark McCann (left) pictured sat in his car with a real life car thief as he shows him how he would steal a £60,000 Range Rover SVR
The thief uses the device to unlock the car and start the engine supposedly within seconds of arriving in the car park
Mark hires a car thief to steal his mother's car (pictured) as part of a staged routine
Car thieves are known to use a keyless 'relay' device to fool cars into thinking that their real keys are nearby - a feature of high-end cars that allow doors to be unlocked and cars to be started without using the key.
However this new technique seems much more risk averse, with thieves not needing to be in the vicinity of the vehicle in order to steal it, nor do they need to imitate the owner's key in order to gain access.
Instead, it requires a kit that the video claims can be bought from the dark web for £15,000. To demonstrate how the kit works, Mark hires a car thief to steal his mother's car as part of a staged routine.
Mark says: 'We are meeting a man who steals for a living. This equipment is state of the art and I've heard stories of what this stuff can do.
'We are going to see that live today and the levels of the stuff he can steal is frightening for everybody.
Mark picks up the thief in his car and explains that he has arranged for the thief to pretend to steal a Range Rover SVR, which was bought new for around £110,000 to £115,000.
They then follow the Range Rover to a Tesco's car park which the thief says is 'the perfect location' to steal a car as they know the owner will not be back for around 20 minutes while they do their shopping.
The thief adds: 'This is why most of these thefts take place in these kind of environments. Because you know they're not coming back in.'
The thief then uses a device to send a 'request signal to the key's vehicle module' which then allows him to open the car.
Mark picks up the thief in his car and explains that he has arranged for the thief to pretend to steal a Range Rover SVR, which was bought new for around £110,000 to £115,000.
They then follow the Range Rover to a Tesco's car park (pictured) which the thief says is 'the perfect location' to steal a car
The thief then uses a device to send a 'request signal to the key's vehicle module' which then allows him to open the car
After opening the front door of the Range Rover, the thief then inserts a device into the OBD port of the car which then allows it the ignition turned on
He then tells Mark that the device is not copying the key - as is done with relay thefts - but instead it is 'communicating with the vehicle' to unlock it in 'under 20 seconds'.
Mark then confirms that the car alarm won't go off if they open the door, adding: 'So right now that car thinks it's been opened legitimately.'
After opening the front door of the Range Rover, the thief then inserts a device into the OBD port of the car which then allows it the ignition turned on.
The thief says: 'So we've got entry to the vehicle, plug [the device] into the OBD port which is right underneath the dash here. Easily accessible. Will be two seconds.'
The machine then produces a beeping noise before the thief then carelessly turns on the ignition of the car. 'Less than thirty seconds and we're in,' he says.
The thief tells Mark that in a real life situation he would then drive the car to an isolated location to remove a part of the car that allows it to be tracked.
Marks says: 'So then we've got as much time as we want?' to which the thief replies: 'Yeah absolutely, yeah.'
Later in the video a locksmith later shows viewers his own version of the thief's kit, which he says he had to go through background checks in order to buy.
The locksmith tells Mark: 'This is proper legit equipment. It's fully registered and everything. And with this equipment I've had to have background checks and stuff.
'But there is a company out there selling it to anyone. No background checks. You could be Joe Blogs off the street.'
The video then shows a screenshot of what is thought to be one of the devices being sold on a site, which has been blurred in the video.
Criminals usually go in pairs to steal keyless cars. One holds a transmitter and stands next to the vehicle while the other stands close to the house holding an amplifier
The car theft method shown in the video is different to that which has often been used by thieves in recent years to steal keyless cars.
Relay theft is a way thieves break into cars in seconds, without using blunt force or needing a key, all by exploiting electronic key fobs. Car thefts rose by a quarter last year, in part due to this form of theft.
Relay theft sees criminals simply stand outside a house with a car parked outside, then use a device called a keyless repeater, which works by extending the limited range of a normal keyless fob.
That tricks the car into thinking the fob is closer than it is, letting criminals unlock it remotely and steal the car and any valuables left inside it. The devices used in these type of thefts can be purchased for as little as £80 each, according to experts.
However, it does require the key to be nearby in order to boost its signal, compared to the method show in the YouTube video, which can be done even when the key is a further distance away.
Motorists are advised to keep keys in secure pouches or locked away in a box to block hackers' boosting the signals in these kind of thefts.
Despite a steady increase in car stolen in the last three years, figures are still well below the peak in 2002, when thefts reached almost 307,000.
Experts believe the recent wave is being spurred by the high cost of second hand cars and a shortage of car parts.
The most stolen popular car model last year, as a proportion of the number licenced to go on the road, was the Lexus RX with more than 1 in 50 being taken
The second most targeted car was the Range Rover Velar, with 560 out of 382,286 - 1 in 68 - being stolen
The Toyota Rav4 is proportionally the fifth most stolen car in the UK of which 1,164 out of 142,919 models on the road being stolen in 2023, or 1 in 123
Lexus was revealed to be the highest popular car brand to have its cars stolen, with 2,029 out of 182,207 cars - 1 in 90 - being stolen in 2023.
Land Rover, which includes Range Rovers under its brand, was second with 6,620 out of 1,021,978 or 1 in 154 being taken by thieves last year.
Land Rover also saw the second-most thefts of brands in total, only behind Ford, the most popular car brand on British roads, which saw 10,914 vehicles stolen in 2023.
Land Rover's sister firm Jaguar, both under parent company Jaguar Land Rover, was next on the list with 1,384 out of 375,316 cars - 1 in 271 - being stolen last year.
JLR said it has provided more than 22,240 insurance solutions for clients with an average monthly quote of less than £180 since launch in October. It added that 110,000 vehicles have received security updates to protect against thefts as part of a £15million investment.
A JLR spokesperson said: 'Our vehicles are engineered to be robust against the methods we know organised criminal gangs are using, reflected by a 20% decline in thefts across all Range Rover models last year
'To protect clients of older vehicles from theft we have invested £15m in a nationwide rollout of security updates benefiting clients of vehicles from 2016, with 110,000 so far being updated; inputted into a new Criminal Justice Bill to make the tools used in vehicle thefts illegal; and are funding hundreds of thousands of pounds on additional policing to tackle the root cause of thefts by stopping the flow of stolen cars out of the country, to benefit all UK drivers.
'As increased premiums unfortunately affect the whole insurance industry, we have provided more than 22,240 clients with an insurance solution through our own insurance offering, with an average monthly premium of less than £180. We will continue monitoring and refining our service so that even more clients can take advantage of it as it grows.'
