Car manufacturers have had their efforts in increasing car security recognised at the this year's British Insurance Car Security Awards (BICSA) organise by repair centre Thatcham.

Citroen took home an innovation award for its Vehicle Identification System (CVIS), a device for marking cars to make their identification easier to the police.

Details of the system are only available to the police authorities and insurance providers.

Citroen finished the ceremony with four other awards for a total of five, a record for a car manufacturer.

Also honoured with an innovation award was Volvo's pocket Personal Car Communicator (PCC) that tells its owner when an intruder has broken into his car by sending a signal to the small device that can be attached to a key ring.

Ford was dominant in the car awards, its S-MAX taking the top prize and the Galaxy model being runner up in the MPV category.

The S-MAX was praised for being the safest from break-ins and thefts, using a combination of different technologies to alert the owner and stop a getaway from taking place.