A weekly programme which focuses on people and the situations which shape their lives
Reporters: Jim Douglas Henry, Jeremy James, Jeanne La Chard, John Pitman,
Gillian Strickland, Desmond Wilcox, Harold Williamson

This week: The Stolen Car Business
It takes fifty minutes to watch Man Alive - during that time five more motorists will have their cars stolen. Car thefts have reached enormous, swamping proportions. So much so that Scotland Yard struck despair in motorists' hearts by announcing recently that they could no longer issue stolen car details to policemen on the beat - it would make a list as big as the Bible. While ninety per cent of all cars stolen are recovered (usually taken by joy-riders, stripped of valuables and abandoned), one in ten never shows up again. It becomes part of the stolen car business, an industry with a turnover of £10-million a year.

Motorists are beginning to ask: 'What more can we do? What more should the police do? What more should insurance companies and manufacturers do?' The thieves themselves may provide some of the answers, and tonight Man Alive looks at the stolen car business - from the inside.
(Colour)