Which West Kent Borough Has the Most Vehicle Crime? It Depends How You Count

Maidstone recorded more vehicle crime than any other West Kent borough over the past year - 659 offences between September 2025 and August 2026, against Sevenoaks' 516, Tonbridge & Malling's 494 and Tunbridge Wells' 305. But Maidstone is also by far the biggest borough by population, and once that's accounted for, the picture flips: Sevenoaks actually has the highest rate of vehicle crime in West Kent, not the lowest.

Working from Home Office police recorded-crime data - the same open dataset behind the police.uk crime map - and ONS mid-2024 population estimates, the rate per 1,000 residents over the 12 months comes out as: Sevenoaks 4.20, Tonbridge & Malling 3.61, Maidstone 3.51, and Tunbridge Wells 2.55. Sevenoaks' smaller population (122,748, against Maidstone's 187,767) means its 516 recorded offences carry more weight per resident than Maidstone's larger raw total. Tunbridge Wells, both in raw count and in rate, had the least vehicle crime of the four over the year.

It's worth being precise about what's being counted. Police.uk's "vehicle crime" category is broader than just cars being driven away - it covers theft of a vehicle, theft from a vehicle (smashed windows, stolen tools or belongings), and vehicle interference (someone caught trying a door handle or tampering with a car without necessarily taking it). The published data doesn't break that total down by sub-type, so none of the figures above are a count of cars stolen specifically - they're a count of all vehicle-related crime reported to Kent Police in each area.

Tunbridge Wells has the lowest numbers overall, but also the clearest trend: its monthly vehicle crime count roughly doubled across the year, from a low of 16 in December 2025 to 37 in August 2026, climbing in most months in between. Maidstone shows the opposite seasonal shape - higher through the autumn and winter (63-70 a month, October to February), lower through spring (39-47, March to June), before rising again in August. Sevenoaks and Tonbridge & Malling were both comparatively flat across the year, aside from a shared spike in March 2026.

Separately, DVLA data obtained by the insurer Tempcover under the Freedom of Information Act shows which specific car models were stolen most often UK-wide between January and June 2026: the Nissan Juke Tekna CVT topped the list with 197 recorded thefts, ahead of two Toyota C-HR hybrid variants and a run of Ford Fiesta trims (still appearing in volume despite the Fiesta being discontinued since 2023, reflecting how many are still on the road). Four fully electric models - two Hyundai Ioniq 5s and two Kia Niros - appeared in the top 20 for the first time, which Tempcover puts down to keyless entry and relay-attack vulnerabilities. This data is UK-wide only; neither the DVLA nor Tempcover publish a Kent or South East breakdown by model, so there's no reliable way to say which specific car is most targeted in any West Kent borough - only how much vehicle crime, in total, each one records.

Across all four boroughs, the outcome data tells a fairly consistent story: between 80% and 87% of vehicle crime cases in the past year were closed as "investigation complete - no suspect identified," with a further 5-13% logged as "unable to prosecute suspect" even where someone was identified. Only a small handful of cases, in any borough, reached a court outcome. That's not a West Kent-specific failing - it reflects how hard low-value, often unwitnessed vehicle crime is to solve anywhere - but it's a useful piece of context for anyone wondering what typically happens after they report a break-in or attempted theft.

Sources: Home Office, data.police.uk (Kent Police street-level crime data, September 2025-August 2026), Office for National Statistics (2024 mid-year population estimates), Tempcover (DVLA data via Freedom of Information request)