Letter: The true cost of stealing

On Tuesday, November 16 my car was broken into and my hands-free kit stolen.

The excess on my insurance to get the window replaced was £60 and as a result of the claim, my insurance premiums will increase for at least the next three years.

To replace the hands free kit with the same model will cost about £35 and replacing the mobile phone holder that was ripped off the window despite clearly being empty will cost about £15.

The cost to me for the theft of my hands free kit will be about £110, just over a month before Christmas - money I would have spent on presents for my children.

I phoned the police to report the theft and they sent two officers to the scene of the crime - this probably cost them at least £100.

They sent a scenes of crime officer today to try and get fingerprints - this probably cost them another £100.

The cost to the taxpayer was probably in the region of £200, bringing the total cost of this theft of over £300 and that's without considering the cost to my insurance company, the extra cost of my wife ferrying me and our eldest son round Telford for work and school or the extra money I'm going to have to pay for my insurance.

And what benefit has the thief got from it? My stolen hands-free kit will earn no more than a tenner.

I don't expect to ever recover my stolen hands free kit, nor do I expect the police to catch the thief but on the off-chance that any would-be thief reads this, I would ask them to think about the effect they have on the families of their victims and the true cost of their crime.

Stuart Parr

Telford