More than one in ten burglaries in affluent neighbourhoods is committed for the keys to the car on the driveway rather than valuable items in the house, The Times has learnt.

Thieves have found that stealing the keys from motorists’ homes is an easy way of bypassing a car’s security system.

There were 2,494 burglaries in London last year aimed at stealing car keys, and in three boroughs – Bexley, Bromley and Havering – more than 10 per cent of break-ins were classed as car-key thefts. The figures emerged as a judge at Southwark Crown Court sentenced leaders of the most prolific car-ringing gang in Britain in the past decade. Many of the 306 cars stolen on the orders of Robert Taylor’s gang were taken after the keys were stolen from owners’ homes.

That trend is being repeated in wealthy areas across the country where people own the most sought after cars – Audis, BMWs and Volkswagens – and park them on their driveways. It puts householders at greater risk because key burglars are looking for evidence that homes are occupied.

“They are looking for signs that you are in because they are looking for the keys to your car,” Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Dark, head of Scotland Yard’s Stolen Vehicle Unit, said.

Thieves push fishing rods and poles through letterboxes to hook keyrings on tables, or sneak into homes after spotting keys through the window. There have also been incidents of people being forced to hand over their keys, or being threatened on their doorsteps. Police have recovered 190 of the cars stolen on Taylor’s orders but are still looking for the £4.5 million amassed by the criminals between 2000 and 2004.

Taylor’s associates included David Adams, a DVLA clerical officer who was paid £500 per vehicle to relicence stolen cars, and his former girlfriend, Emma Rayfield, a trainee police officer. Taylor, 36, was jailed for 2½ years, Adams, 31, and Rayfield, 32, were ordered to do community service. Seven other members of the gang were given sentences ranging from nine months suspended to five years.

Those convicted were not the thieves but the organisers of a sophisticated conspiracy. Taylor was in contact with Claude van Isacker, a Belgian salvage dealer now in prison, who bought wrecked vehicles, and gathered identifying information from them.

The gang in Britain would then order the theft of an identical vehicle. Their main targets were silver or black Audi TT Quattros and VW Golf V6s. But they also stole BMW and Mercedes models, some Porsches and three Ferraris.

Many were taken to a garage in New Cross, southeast London, where mechanics stripped out the car’s identifying features, replacing them with the detail from the scrapped Belgian cars. A forged ownership history was drawn up before an application was made to the DVLA to licence the car as an import. The cars were then sold around Britain. The operation was of such a high standard that many cars passed inspections by AA or RAC staff.

The network was stopped after an 18-month investigation by Scotland Yard.

Sentencing the defendants, Judge John Price said: “It was a substantial conspiracy. Not all of the conspirators are in the dock. Some of the controlling forces may have escaped or run away, but [the police] destroyed an enormous organisation that was causing distress and financial loss to innocent people.”

Mr Dark said that the investigaion had targeted the “upper echelon” of a highly organised criminal network. “The innocent purchasers of these stolen and reidentified vehicles stood to lose substantial amounts of hard-earned cash, as well as their newly purchased car, both of which they were unable to recoup, as a car will not be covered by insurance if it is stolen,” he said.

Top targets
Audi TT Quatro
BMW (6 Coupé)
VW Golf (V6)
Porsche Boxster
Mercedes 500SL
Ferrari 360 Modena
Ferrari F355 Spyder