Research conducted by moneysupermarket.com has surprisingly shown that villages can be just as bad for vehicle crime as cities.

The worst location for thefts from cars and vans and vehicle theft is the village of Winchelsea in East Sussex. Although the top vehicle crime spots included Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester there were many much smaller villages including Saltburn-by-sea in Cleveland, which was in second place, and Godstone in Surrey which was in third.

The crime statistics were based on the number of motor insurance claims made by residents over the past 5 years.

It came as quite a shock to see smaller villages at the top of the car crime list. The crimes included theft from vehicles as well as vehicle theft. A common problem is theft from works vehicles where trades-people will often leave valuable tools.