Vehicles stolen from a holding yard in Hume on Christmas Eve were involved in a number of crimes throughout Canberra in the Christmas-New Year holiday period.
The crimes are understood to have included burglary and theft.
To date, 10 people have been charged in relation to the thefts, with eight people remanded in custody.
It is the most brazen volume car theft in the ACT since December 2018 when a determined car thief overcame padlocks, gates and electric fencing at Pickles Auctions to steal seven cars from their Fyshwick compound including a HSV Clubsport and Subaru WRX.
He then returned the following night and took two more cars from the same place, as well as a $50,000 Suzuki motorcycle from a seperate premises.
In this instance, the thieves struck at 8.50am on December 24, thieves forced the gate on a Hume holding yard and driving out 11 vehicles.
The vehicles' keys were used to drive the cars away although police would not provide any detail of whether the keys were secured separately.
The stolen second-hand vehicles included a BMW X5, BMW 328i, Audi Q7, Subaru Forester, two Toyota 86 sports cars and two Ford Ranger utilities.
Ten of the stolen vehicles have been recovered after an intensive police effort. One remains outstanding.
The mass theft at Hume is expected to put a late spike in the ACT's motor vehicle theft reporting which, according to the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council, had been trending slightly downward.
In the eight months to the end of September, the council reported 1092 vehicles had been stolen in Canberra, down 17 from the same period the previous year.
The ACT police online crime statistics map produced a lower result of 923 stolen during the same nine month period. Police data for crime across the ACT in 2019 has not yet been released.
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