Start of debate in the Senate

Car and motorbike theft, up to six years imprisonment and use of wiretaps

Tougher penalties, mandatory confiscation and no prison benefits in the bill

by Giovanni Negri

23 August 2025

2' min read

Key points

Growing data
Most affected regions
Customised aggregate
Yes to eavesdropping
Mandatory confiscation
No benefit

2' min read

Specific aggravating circumstance to raise the penalty; compulsory confiscation; stop to prison benefits. These are the contents of the draft law, on the subject oftheft of cars or motorcycles, which the Senate's Justice Committee began examining just before the summer break. The text addresses an absolutely critical situation, crystallised in the data accompanying the measure.

Growing data

A worrying development is in fact underlined. Vehicle thefts in Italy are on the rise: in 2024, more than 136,000 vehicles were stolen, an increase of 3 per cent compared to the previous year, and an increase of 6 per cent for cars alone. Even more pronounced was the increase in thefts of commercial vehicles, which more than doubled (+112 per cent). This is what emerges from data provided by the Ministry of the Interior, supplemented with those from other reports and studies on the phenomenon. The stolen goods are often dismantled within a few hours and the parts sent along the routes of Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

Furti d’auto: la più amata dai ladri è la Panda

Most Affected Regions

"A growing criminal phenomenon,' reads the report, 'which is widespread throughout the country, but with peaks in the macro-area made up of the regions of Campania, Lazio, Sicily, Apulia and Lombardy, where almost 8 out of 10 thefts are concentrated, and which occurs systematically and frequently, creating significant situations of social alarm and problems of public order'.

Made-to-measure

The intervention then introduces a number of new features. First of all, among thespecial-effect aggravating circumstances of the crime of theft is introduced, within Article 625 of the Criminal Code, also that of having committed the deed on auto or motorcycle or otherwise on private means of transport.

Yes to eavesdropping

The tightening, which entails the application of the penalty of release from two to six years, increases the investigative potential, as it becomes possible to resort to interceptions of conversations. Furthermore, compulsory arrest in flagrancy is provided for.

Mandatory confiscation

From a property point of view, given the purpose of the conduct, the measure of compulsory confiscation, also for equivalent value, of the product, price or profit of the offence is provided for. Similarly, the sanctions relating to thereception of motor vehicles or motorbikes resulting from the offence of theft aggravated by the new circumstance are made more severe.

No benefit

Finally, in order to ensure certainty of punishment, it is provided that the commission of the offence of theft aggravated by the circumstance of having committed the act on motor vehicles or motorbikes or in any case on private means of transport shall be considered a condition for the granting of prison benefits.