Anti Car Jacking device that detects an unauthorised driver, stops the car after a safe distance and the car - hi-jacker is caught.

Car jacking - or car hi-jacking is increasing, it is believed to have led to the murder of a London estate agent, Timothy Robinson outside his own home. A 41 year-old mother-of-three from south-east London became another victim of car jacking after she was punched unconscious, before her attacker drove off in her £50,000 Mercedes Benz. In Essex. In the same county a gang hi-jacked a BMW at gunpoint in Loughton and are believed to have tried to steal a second BMW earlier. In another incident also in Essex a man was shot in the stomach and forced from his Mercedes.

Car Jacking isn't just a problem restricted to the south of England, West Yorkshire police have created a team to deal with car hi-jackers following a series of car-jackings. Just in January 2003 there were five reported car-jackings and four attempted car-jackings in Bradford.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "Car-jacking is affecting the whole of the country. It is a matter of real public concern."

Why is car hi-jacking on the increase? It seems that the car-jackers are drawn to expensive cars such as BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes and Porsche. This fact doesn't make older less expensive cars exempt from car jacking, it is probably that they would have been stolen to order and car hi-jacking is clean and simple. It avoids damaging the car and the car hi-jacker doesn't need to deal with immobilisors and alarms.The chances of your car being returned is very slim because they are destined for customers abroad and the car jacker will earn on average a mere £700.

Any car is fair game to car-jackers if it is vulnerable - including those left at filling stations when people leave the keys in the ignition. It has even happened to mothers who have left their babies and toddlers in the car.

So, we take extra care and lock ourselves in the car and in the most extreme cases, they may threaten the driver at gunpoint... then we let them have the car ... wouldn't it be nice to see your car come to a halt, activate a central locking system and scream hue and cry!

Police advise the public to; lock car doors when driving, never leave keys in the ignition, hand over the keys when threatened. On a recent BBC news program a Scotland Yard spokesman said that police had been successful in a number of convictions involving car-jacking, although exact figures were not yet available at the time. This may be because the crime is classed as robbery under UK law

Many of us may remember when car-jacking came to our attention back in the mid-1970s, in South Africa, then it was recorded as a mere robbery but didn't merit its own crime category until later in 1986. Before the new millennium car hi-jacking had dramatically increased with a reported 10,000 cases each year just in the province of Gauteng.

We can relax a little and distance ourselves in the comfort that these activities are in South Africa but we can and should learn from them. For instance we know that the main targets are in car parks, driveways, traffic lights and outside schools. These facts can be frightening for mums going about their normal lives, dropping off children, picking up shopping etc.

The USA have added another part to make car hi-jacking so much easier, and it will be copied in Britain no doubt. A simple bump, nothing more than a tiny collision, but it makes you get out of your car ... and you are the next victim of car jacking. Police in the UK suggest that If you are in a collision such as being bumped from behind, do not leave your car, lock all doors and then drive to the nearest police station.

Okay we can scorn this advice but in reality what are we to do? we are at the traffic lights - on red, cars in front - car behind crashes into us, we wait for the light to change (whilst looking in our A-Z for a police station and drive away from the scene of an accident ... but we still have our car and our life wasn't threatened.

Thieves often target motorists who leave goods on seats, such as a handbag or laptop computer, and in nearly all cases they strike when the vehicle is stationary at traffic lights. So, not only do you lose your car, but your other goods and chattles including keys, cash, cards and phone. I would also guess that the time most people look at maps is at traffic lights - then you are concentrating on your atlas not on potential car jacking.

The other moral issue is when a victim lays in the roadside, do you risk all and get out to help?

We don't live in a perfect world and car jackers know where the most vulnerable are likely to be, not just busy mums but men and women, young and old. Pay and display car parks must be a perfect hunting ground for car jacking victims. We search for a space without knowing who is watching us, when we find a space, we park and find a ticket machine ... search for change, buy the ticket return to display said ticket to see our beloved car exiting the car park - do you wish you had a remote zapper that would bring your car to a halt and leave a safe distance between you and the car hi-jacker then call the police?.

Insurance may be our safety net, but the RAC Foundation is seriously concerned that Britain's insurance companies may refuse to pay out money to motorists involved in car-jackings. Look at your small print, the majority of car insurance policies say that claims are invalid if the key is left in the ignition or if the car was not locked when stolen. That must include claims for car hi-jacking.

Somewhere there must be an inventor who can develop an anti Car Jacking device that detects an unauthorised driver, stops the car after a safe distance and the car - hi-jacker is caught.

In South Africa they have a blow torch which is fitted to the sills of the car and blasts high powered flames out to furnace the would-be car jacker. Scotland Yard strongly suggested that we will not see this fitted to cars in Britain. Inventors - show yourselves!