Vehicle crime in Cardiff: the streets to know about
Police recorded 1,352 vehicle crimes within a mile of Cardiff town centre in the last 12 months — theft of vehicles, theft from vehicles and vehicle interference.
The short answer
Cardiff ranks #1 of 111 UK town centres we track for vehicle crime, with 1,352 offences in 12 months — and rising sharply. Parking here isn’t reckless, but it rewards care: most offences cluster on a handful of streets (named below), and most are opportunist — visible deterrents end them.
1,352
Vehicle crimes, September 2025 – August 2026
+95.4%
Last 3 months vs the same 3 months a year earlier
113
Average per month
Rate per 1,000 residents · year ending June 2026
Vehicle crime across the South Wales force area
4.54
per 1,000 people, South Wales
5.04
England and Wales
6,147
offences recorded, 12 months
Vehicle crime in the South Wales force area runs at about 1.1 times below the national rate. Cardiff is one of the local authority areas inside it.
This is a different measure from the count above. The 1,352 figure counts crimes within a mile of Cardiff town centre, from police street-level records. The rate here covers the whole South Wales force area, from police recorded crime as published by ONS. Different geography and a different collection basis, so the two totals are not comparable with each other.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables, year ending June 2026. Police recorded crime collected by the Home Office. How we use it. Published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The last 12 months
Where it clusters in Cardiff
| # | Street (on or near) | Vehicle crimes (15 months) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Knox Road | 35 |
| 2 | Newport Road Lane | 29 |
| 3 | Glossop Road | 25 |
| 4 | Theme/adventure Park | 22 |
| 5 | Sophia Close | 21 |
| 6 | Castle Lane | 19 |
| 7 | Ferry Terminal | 19 |
| 8 | Longueil Close | 18 |
| 9 | Mandeville Street | 18 |
What to do with this: if you regularly park on or near the streets above, that’s where the defences below earn their keep — most of these offences are opportunist, and the easiest car on the street is the one taken. Check your insurance excess too: it’s often more than the cost of every deterrent combined.
Figures are street-level police records within one mile of Cardiff town centre — police anonymise locations to the nearest mapped street point, so counts are indicative of the immediate area rather than exact addresses. Compare Cardiff with other towns on the UK vehicle crime league table, or check the roads themselves on the Cardiff accident hotspot map.
How Cardiff compares nationally
Cardiff is the highway authority for these roads, which means the same body counted in the national comparison below is the one that maintains them.
Per mile driven
176 of 192
Per resident
187 of 188
Risk band
Lowest risk
Five-year trend
up 2.6%
The full record for Cardiff — severity-adjusted casualties, the breakdown of who is being hurt, the darkness and ice profile, and a comparison against its ONS statistical neighbours rather than the national average — is on its own page.
Cardiff’s full road risk record →What actually changes the odds in Cardiff
Data is only useful if it changes what you do. These three are picked from Cardiff’s own figures above, each with the number that prompted it. Every guide explains how the thing works before it suggests buying anything, and most cost less than a third of a typical insurance excess.
Faraday key pouch / box
£9–£25
Cardiff records 363 vehicle crimes per 100,000 residents, above the median of the towns we track. Keyless relay theft is the leading route into modern cars, and a signal-blocking pouch ends that method outright for under a tenner.
How it works →
Steering wheel lock
£40–£70
Vehicle theft is target selection: thieves work a street and take the easiest car. A visible attack-rated bar moves your car down that list before anyone touches it.
How it works →
OBD port lock
£25–£50
Where theft rates run above average, key-cloning through the diagnostic socket tends to follow. A £25 steel case blocks the socket the programmer needs.
How it works →
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