Police in Nottinghamshire have been tramping through muddy fields around Newark to recover more than 20 stolen luxury cars after discovering that thieves had been hiding them in the woods.

The area was hit by a wave of thefts over the summer with 40 separate reports of stolen cars between February and October.

Rather than stashing the vehicles in an urban lock-up, the thieves relied on the dense woodland around the town to cover their tracks.

But police spotted their trail after they started receiving tip-offs from landowners stumbling across the high-end cars concealed in their fields.

‘We’ve managed to track down these cars to all sorts of different hiding places, including ones that had been dumped in the middle of nowhere and submerged within bushes,’ said PC Lydia Day of Nottinghamshire Police.

‘All kinds of tactics have been used by our teams to reunite these vehicles with their owners – from drone flyovers, to liaising with local council workers, and speaking to farmers to see if they’d spotted anything suspicious.

‘Our officers have put so much time, energy and steps into finding these cars, with miles upon miles trodden through rural woodland, hills and fields.’

Some of the expensive cars were plastered with mud and police have yet to reveal if any arrests have been made.

Twenty-two stolen Land Rovers and Range Rovers have been discovered stashed in the fields and woods around Newark in Nottinghamshire 

The forests of Nottinghamshire have been refuge for outlaws for centuries, but police were surprised at the extent of their haul 

They were receiving reports of a stolen Land Rover or a Range Rover as often as every 10 days in Newark at the height of the summer.

Across England and Wales an average of 78.5 per cent of car thefts went unsolved in the last financial year with urban hotspots usually worst-affected.

Just ten percent of cars stolen in London are recovered, with less than one percent of cases resulting in someone being charged.

The crime rate in Bexley, South-East London, is three times the national average and locals claim there are roads where ‘nearly every car has a steering lock’.

Peter Bleksley, a former police officer who lives in the borough, said: ‘If you’ve managed to do well for yourself and got yourself a nice car you can kiss it goodbye round here, because the level of car crime is absolutely appalling.

‘Years ago you would never have seen a steering wheel lock on a car but now everyone is getting down Halfords because if you don’t have extra security on your car it’s gone.

‘People want officers, either uniformed or plain clothed, out here stopping the thefts taking place or catching the unscrupulous organised criminals stealing their cars.’

David Bowden, who lives on Glenhurst Avenue in Bexleyheath, said he had heard of four or five cars being stolen over a recent period of weeks.

He added: ‘There have been a lot of thefts in this area, mainly targeting expensive cars with keyless entry.

‘If you walk down this road you’ll see that nearly every car has a steering wheel lock on. It’s a big concern but you can only do so much to protect your car.

‘I think the police could do more to prevent it. Once upon a time you would see patrols in the area but I think like a lot of things at the moment the police are probably under-resourced, so I imagine car thefts aren’t their biggest priority.’

Some of the luxury cars were plastered with mud after being left for months on end

In Nottinghamshire, 77 percent of car thefts remain unsolved and just four percent result in a charge.

‘If you walk down this road you’ll see that nearly every car has a steering wheel lock on. It’s a big concern but you can only do so much to protect your car.

‘I think the police could do more to prevent it. Once upon a time you would see patrols in the area but I think like a lot of things at the moment the police are probably under-resourced, so I imagine car thefts aren’t their biggest priority.’

But the rate of theft for Land Rovers and Range Rovers has dropped steeply since police discovered the rural hiding places, with just three reports over the last three months.

‘The end result has seen us recover more than half the Land Rovers and Range Rovers reported stolen, while the number of vehicle thefts has dropped significantly as well, which is really pleasing to see,’ said PC Day.

‘Despite this, however, we know there’s still an ongoing risk of these thefts happening, so we’d encourage owners of Land Rovers and other 4x4s to remain vigilant to make it as hard as possible for thieves to target their vehicles.’