Hertfordshire is in the top five for buggy thefts in the country.

According to a Freedom of Information (FoI) to the police by Confused.com, 3,000 pram thefts have been officially recorded in the last four years.

The financial services comparison company says there is a black market in posh prams fuelling millions of buggy thefts, costing £60m a year.

One in six parents of children under 12 said they have had a pram or buggy stolen.

This is equivalent to an estimated 127,000 thefts a year, of these, more than 42 per cent did not report the incident to the police.

With the average cost of a stolen buggy being £487, according to the research, thefts could be costing British parents millions.

On top of this, several other high-value items are stolen too. According to research, in nine in 10 buggy thefts mobile phones, handbags, wallets and tablets were also stolen.

The study also suggests that parents’ willingness to buy second-hand prams could actually be contributing to the buggy black market. Almost one in five (19 per cent) parents even said they’d consider buying a stolen pram, buggy or pushchair.

The risk of pram theft is highest in Greater Manchester, West and South Yorkshire and Essex but Hertfordshire comes in as fifth in the country.

Prams are often stolen in broad daylight and in public spaces. The most common locations for pram thefts were cafes, car parks, outside supermarkets and from the owner’s home.

Furthermore, parents with designer buggy brands are at higher risk. The most popular brands targeted by thieves are Mothercare, Silver Cross and Mamas and Papas.