Five Kent Police appeals are open around Sevenoaks, the newest over graffiti on Swanley shops and the rec on 19 and 20 September. Every reference number.

Checked 30 September 2026

We re-read every appeal in this Sevenoaks crime news round-up against Kent Police's own site on 30 September 2026. The four already listed are unchanged: none has been withdrawn, and the force has added nothing to any of them since our last check on 19 September. One has been added. On 25 September the force published an appeal after graffiti and paint damage to businesses in Swanley town centre and at Swanley Recreation Ground, in which a 15-year-old boy has been arrested and bailed.

Kent Police have five published, unresolved appeals running in the Sevenoaks district, and every one of them asks local residents for the same thing: private CCTV, doorbell video and dashcam footage from people who were nearby. Two are vehicle thefts from properties in the town, one is a dog taken from farmland at Dunton Green, one is a collision on the High Street that left an 18-year-old motorcyclist with life-threatening injuries, and the newest is a weekend of graffiti across Swanley town centre. This page sets out what the force has actually said in each case, the reference numbers to quote, what the recorded crime figures for the district show, and every official route for reporting something yourself.

Everything below comes from Kent Police’s own published appeals, the police.uk open-data service, or the Home Office recorded crime tables. Each source is linked at the foot of the page, and each appeal carries the date the force published it, so you can see how current it is.

The open appeals

Newest first, with the date the force published each one. An appeal stays on Kent Police’s site until the force takes it down, so the publication date, not the date of the incident, is what tells you how live it is.

Graffiti on Swanley shops and the recreation ground, 19 and 20 September

Kent Police published this appeal on 25 September 2026. Over the weekend of 19 and 20 September several businesses in Swanley town centre were damaged with graffiti and paint, and Swanley Recreation Ground was targeted too. A 15-year-old local boy has been arrested and bailed. He has not been charged and the force has not named him, so neither do we. Chief Inspector Paul Diddams said the investigation remains ongoing and that the force has worked with partner agencies to get the paint cleaned up.

Graffiti at Swanley station over the same weekend is a separate matter, being investigated by British Transport Police rather than Kent Police. For the town centre and the recreation ground, the west Kent appeals line is 01622 604100, quoting 19-0174, and the force wants to hear from anyone with private CCTV or dashcam footage from that weekend. Our report: Swanley graffiti, boy arrested over town centre damage.

A motorcyclist seriously hurt on the High Street, 7 September

Kent Police published this appeal on 14 September 2026, a week after the collision itself. It happened at around 9.18pm on Monday 7 September on the High Street, near the junction with Six Bells Lane, and involved a black Sur-Ron electric motorcycle. The 18-year-old rider suffered what the force calls serious, life-threatening injuries and was taken to a London hospital, where the appeal describes him as serious but stable.

Investigating officers want to hear from anyone who was travelling in the area between 9pm and 9.20pm and saw the motorcycle in the moments before the collision, and from anyone whose doorbell camera, dashcam or CCTV caught it before or after. The number is the Kent Police appeals line, 01622 604100, quoting 07-1662. Our full report is here: Sevenoaks High Street crash, police appeal after teen hurt.

A lurcher taken from farmland at Dunton Green, 31 August

Kent Police published this appeal on 10 September 2026. Between 10.15pm and 11.30pm on Monday 31 August a group forced entry to farmland in Rye Lane, Dunton Green, broke into a kennel and took a beige lurcher, leaving in a silver car. The reference is 46/146107/26, on the west Kent appeals line, 01622 604100. Our report: lurcher stolen from a Dunton Green farm.

The force says it is not ruling out a link to other similar incidents in the Sevenoaks area, and there has been one this summer. Two dogs were taken from an agricultural barn in Penn Lane, Ide Hill, on the night of Tuesday 11 August. Both are now home: Nellie, a springer spaniel, was found on 14 August, and Kent Police said on 16 September that Betty, a cocker spaniel, had been located too. The appeal page for that theft has since been taken down, but the force says the investigation into it is still running and still wants information, on 46/132411/26. Our report: both stolen spaniels are back home.

A tipper van taken near South Park, 27 August

Kent Police published this appeal on 1 September 2026. The force says it was called at 3.30pm on Thursday 27 August 2026 to a report that a white Ford Transit tipper van had been stolen from a property near South Park in Sevenoaks. It believes those responsible left the scene towards St Johns Hill and then on to Otford.

Officers attended, carried out initial enquiries including a review of CCTV, and the force says an investigation is underway. Anyone with information is asked to call 01622 604100, quoting reference 46/142073/26. Residents along that route with private CCTV, and drivers with dashcam footage who were in the area at the time, are asked to check what they recorded.

A grey Volkswagen Golf taken from a driveway on the A25, 13 May

Kent Police published this appeal on 29 May 2026, and it remains on the force’s site. Officers were called to a report of a grey Volkswagen Golf being stolen from a driveway along the A25 between 12pm and 1.30pm on Wednesday 13 May 2026. The car was reportedly seen afterwards at a petrol station on London Road in Wrotham Heath.

Following initial enquiries, two people were arrested. Officers then released a CCTV image because they wanted to identify another man who may be able to help them, and that part of the appeal is still running. The reference is 46/76575/26, on the same west Kent appeals line, 01622 604100.

Those proceedings are active, which is why we are not naming anyone here. Nor are we describing the man in the CCTV image: an appeal to identify someone is a request for help, not an accusation, and nobody should be assumed to be guilty of anything.

What the recorded figures show

Five appeals in four months are not a trend. The wider picture is better told by the official counts, and we publish both of them.

Across the whole district, Kent Police recorded 6,462 offences in the year to March 2026, which works out at 52.5 crimes per 1,000 residents, about 37% below the England and Wales rate of 83.0. The district total has fallen in each of the last three years, from 7,970 in the year to March 2023. The full working, the comparison with other Kent districts and the reason five Kent areas cannot be compared at all are in our Sevenoaks crime rate report.

Closer in, the street-level data for the square mile around the town centre records 60 crimes in July 2026, down from 62 in June. Vehicle crime accounted for three of them, down four on the month before, while anti-social behaviour made up 22. The month-by-month breakdown, the streets with the most reports and the case outcomes are in our Sevenoaks crime data report, which we update as each new month of police.uk data is published.

Put the two together and the reading is a calm one. On the Home Office’s own numbers the district’s recorded total is going down rather than up, and vehicle crime is a small share of what gets recorded in the town in any given month, so a run of open appeals is not evidence of a wave. What the five do have in common is the ask. Every one of them turns on whether a neighbour, a farm gate or a passing driver recorded something, which is the one piece of evidence the public holds and the force does not.

What Kent Police advise about driveway vehicle theft

The force publishes its own guidance on preventing car and vehicle theft. The points that bear on a theft from a driveway are these:

  • Lock it, even on your own drive. Kent Police note that if your vehicle folds its wing mirrors in when locked, thieves read mirrors left out as a sign it is unlocked.
  • Keep keys away from the front door and out of view. The force warns about keys being fished through a letterbox with a stick and hook.
  • Screen a keyless fob. For keyless entry cars, it recommends keeping the key and the spare well away from the vehicle, storing them in a signal-blocking pouch, and checking every few months that the pouch still works.
  • Add something physical. Locks and immobilisers are still recommended alongside all of the above.

To that we would add the point every one of these appeals makes: a camera only helps if it is recording and keeping the footage, rather than showing a live feed and storing nothing. It is worth checking how far back your own system actually goes, because Kent Police published the High Street appeal a week after the collision and the Dunton Green appeal ten days after the theft.

How to report and stay informed

The reporting routes below are the official ones. They are worth keeping somewhere you can find them.

  • In an emergency, or if a crime is happening now or someone is in danger, call 999. (Kent Police)
  • For non-emergencies, call 101, or use the Kent Police online reporting and live chat tools, which the force says run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (Kent Police)
  • To report anonymously, contact the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or through its secure online form. It will ask about the crime, not about you.
  • To check crime near you, search your postcode on police.uk, which shows recent recorded crimes by category on a local map. Note that street-level releases come out roughly monthly and run about two months behind, as the police.uk data notes explain.
  • To follow your local team, Kent Police run dedicated area pages for Sevenoaks neighbourhoods, including Sevenoaks Town and St John’s, with contact details and updates from the Community Safety Unit.

We check this page against Kent Police’s published appeals and add new ones as the force issues them. Every appeal above was read from the force’s own page on 30 September 2026.

Sources