Over half of stolen cars never recovered.

Over 300 cars are stolen a day in Italy, according to a report from the ministry of the interior.

But it is not the luxury cars that are disappearing. It is the smaller ones that are most popular. Favourites include the Panda, followed by the Punto, Lancia Ypsilon, Uno, Fiesta, Golf and Smart.

Most thefts are in Rome and Naples, followed by Milan.

However thefts are going down, from a total of 126,441 in 2013 to 120,495 in 2014 but police only manage to recover under half the cars stolen.

In 2000 police found 54 per cent of stolen vehicles compared with 45 per cent in 2014. In the last 15 years over one million cars have simply disappeared.