AN increase in motor vehicle theft last year left many motor insurers making significant underwriting losses last year, the South African Insurance Association said on Monday. SAIA chief executive Barry Scott said in a 1988/99 annual report that the relentless increase in crime in the mid-1990s apparently tapered off in 1996 and 1997. “However, during 1998, vehicle theft increased to such an extent that the business once again suffered major losses. The most disturbing feature of these trends is the increase in hijacking which has reached in excess of 20000 per annum.”