Muggers driven off city centre streets by police crackdowns are now targeting cars in suburbia, according to a new survey.

Thefts from cars, mainly when parked outside homes, are up for the first time in 10 years leaving motorists and insurers with an £800m bill, the ninth annual Autoglass car crime survey said.

Recent police crackdowns on street crime have focused on mobile phone robbers and this year the number of mobiles being taken from cars more than tripled from 4 per cent of thefts from vehicles to 14 per cent, the survey said.

Last month a mobile phone was being taken from a car every two minutes.

Ian Carlisle, managing director of Autoglass, said: "Crackdowns on crime often just move the problem somewhere else.

"We're concerned that chasing robbers off city centre streets is leading them to target cars outside homes."

The first rise in attacks on cars for a decade saw the overall numbers of thefts from vehicles up four per cent to 1.6 million, the report said.

The resulting £800m bill means smash-and-grab car crooks are making more money than Marks & Spencer, it concluded.

Yorkshire was the hardest hit area with an attack on a car costing the owner an average of £530.

In towns and cities Leeds saw the most cases overtaking Birmingham as the country's car crime "hotspot", the report said.

The report, which is being sent to Home Secretary David Blunkett, is based on a survey of 1,100 motorists who had vehicle glass replaced by Autoglass in October.

It comes just days after the clocks went back and the report says the hour earlier dusk brings a 22 per cent rise in attacks on cars.