CHILDREN as young as seven are being taught to steal cars by hardened criminals, police believe.

Detectives said some “apprentice criminals” were learning the ropes before they even started secondary school, not targeting shiny new Audis, Mercedes, and BMWs, but old style Vauxhall Corsas, Nissan Micras and Mini Metros instead.

They believe 11-year-olds are coached by criminal mentors to take the cars, speed around and then dump the vehicles – and they revealed last night there could be one thief out there aged just seven.

While car crime has halved in five years, Det Insp Paul Miller, of the city’s priority crime team, fears it is only a matter of time before someone is killed or injured. He is urging people to take extra care to keep their vehicles safe.

He said: “We know that we have a very young thief at the moment as we have found stolen cars where the seat is as far forward as it can go and where a cushion is also used to make the driver closer to the wheel.

“We can’t say who this is in the current cases as we only have intelligence on it, but the suggestion is that there is a child as young as seven involved.

“We can have them as young as 11 and 12 in this city. They are being trained by older villains.

“They do a sort of apprenticeship, they start by driving around in a stolen car and then learn how to steal a car themselves.

“They break into a lot of vehicles before they actually steal a vehicle.

“The scary thing is that they don’t know how to drive, they are learning how to drive by stealing vehicles, which is really dangerous.

“It is my opinion that it will only be a matter of time before they seriously injure or kill themselves – or innocent members of the public.”

Since 2004, police have driven down the numbers of cars stolen in Oxford, from 791 between 2004 and 2005, to just 353 in the past financial year.

Thieves have stolen 104 cars in the city since April.

Det Insp Miller said at any one time there were about 30 car thieves operating in the city, favouring Blackbird Leys and parts of Headington.

Between Friday, August 13, and Sunday, August 15, eight vehicles were stolen in the city, including a Toyota Land Cruiser and two motorbikes in Blackbird Leys, a Vauxhall Corsa in Cowley Road, and another in Dashwood Road, Rose Hill, and a Mitsubishi Shogun in Botley Road.

Det Insp Miller said police visited children in schools to talk to them about the impact of crime and to encourage them to get interested in other activities.

He said: “One of the best deterrents is seeing one of the older thieves getting locked up. Unfortunately this does not happen often enough because the courts are reluctant to imprison people under 17.”

He added: “Over the past few weeks we’ve arrested and convicted 10 people, but it doesn’t stop the problem .

“They are doing it for fun, this is why it’s really difficult to tackle.

“People are stealing cars for the buzz, they are not selling them on or trying to make a profit, they are doing it for a laugh and that makes it really difficult to control.”

Anyone with information about car crime should call police on 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

ellen@oxfordmail.co.uk