An Oldham MP has spoken out about her own experience of having her car’s catalytic converter stolen.

Debbie Abrahams, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, had her converter stolen after parking at Manchester Piccadilly railway station early last year.

Catalytic converters are exhaust control devices that make pollutants less toxic through a chemical reaction.

Precious metals including platinum, palladium, and rhodium are commonly used as the catalyst – a substance which increases the rate of the chemical reaction.

However, these metals can mean thieves target the converters, which can cost motorists hundreds or even thousands of pounds to replace.

The MP spoke out after a garage director in Shaw, located in Ms Abraham’s constituency, spoke of his disgust at the rising thefts of the devices in Greater Manchester.

ALSO READ: Oldham garage ‘disgusted’ by catalytic converter theft rise.

Speaking about the experience, Ms Abrahams said: “I first heard about a surge in catalytic converter thefts last April at a community meeting in Lees I had convened on crime and anti-social behaviour.

"Oldham Chief Superintendent Chris Bowen confirmed that this was the case and that it takes just a few minutes for a catalytic converter to be removed.

“But I couldn’t believe it a couple of weeks later when I got back to Piccadilly station from Parliament late one night, and found mine had been pinched!

“While I waited for the RAC to tow me home, I walked to the Greater Manchester Transport Police’s (GMTP) offices to report the crime.

"No-one was there, but I got a number to ring. I also went to Network Rail’s offices to see if I could access the CCTV footage in the car park to try and identify the culprit.

"I know how busy the police are and was happy to go through the video footage myself.

“To cut a long story short, after playing phone tag with GMTP over several days, the CCTV footage had been deleted, so no details of the perpetrators were available. A disappointing experience.

“I am now very careful where and how I park, and have a security marked catalytic converter so it makes it more difficult for the thieves to sell on to scrap merchants - under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act dealers check the identity of sellers against the unique code.”

In response to the theft, a British Transport Police spokesperson said: “Officers received an online report of a catalytic converter theft from the long stay car park at Manchester Piccadilly station on April 23, 2022.

“Unfortunately, the CCTV at this particular location is only retained for 30 days and in this case it had expired by the time further details were received in relation to the report, which officers needed to be able to request the footage.

“We know that catalytic converter thefts are increasing nationally and we will always thoroughly investigate these reports to the best of our ability in order to identify offenders and bring them before the courts.

“We would encourage motorists to report these incidents to us as soon as possible by texting 61016 or calling 0800 40 50 40.”

Network Rail confirmed it had been in touch with Ms Abrahams at the time of the incident and said it had referred her to the police.