People with a certain type of car have been warned after thieves in the area have set their sights on them. 

The Wiltshire area has, according to the county's police force, seen a 'high number' of thefts targeting the Land Rover Discovery. 

This has led to Wiltshire Police issuing a warning to owners of that specific brand of car to be vigilant and to take precautions. 

PCSO Jonathan Mills said: "I have been contacted by our burglary team as we have seen a high number of Land Rover Discovery-type vehicles being stolen in the Wiltshire area.

"As you may of heard there are a number of different methods used to steal these kinds of vehicles. One such method is by using a device to mimic the signal of the vehicle's key known as ‘relay theft’.

"Another MO that we are seeing is whereby thieves are smashing vehicle windows and accessing the vehicles on board diagnostic port (OBD port) and using a custom computer to bypass the alarm/immobiliser and start the vehicle.

"I would advise owners of these vehicles to be vigilant and increase their security."

PSCO Mills has advised owners of Land Rover Discoverys to  purchase and use 'Faraday' pouches when storing vehicle keys in their property. 

These can be purchased on eBay or Amazon or from many other retailers and can prevent thieves from using the 'relay theft' method. 

Other advice was for motorists to purchase pedal/steering wheel locks which would make the theft of the vehicle significantly harder and may prevent the second method of theft described, which involves smashing windows. 

"Malicious removal of these items creates a lot of noise especially when battery-powered angle grinders are used," said PSCO Mills. 

Several more deterrents were suggested, including blocking the vehicle in with another, deploying motion-activated CCTV in the area which alerts the owner when movement is detected, and PIR LED floodlights which would illuminate the area when motion is detected. 

Finally, advice was given to help potentially retrieve the vehicle on the event that it is stolen.

PCSO Mills added: "Placing a tracker such as an Apple air-tag or smart tag in a hidden location in the vehicle could help, as thieves seem to know where the factory-fitted trackers are located."