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Careful when buying car - Stolen DVLA log books
Vehicles worth £13m have been stolen as a result of the loss of thousands of blank DVLA log books, a BBC investigation has found.
The police say they could be dealing with the impact of the blunder for over a century.
Criminal gangs use the stolen vehicle registration documents to sell cloned cars on the private market.
The DVLA says it is a criminal activity outside of its control and it is working with the police to stop it.
Car cloning is the vehicle equivalent of identity theft. Gangs copy the number plate and other identifying details of a legitimate car onto a similar, but stolen clone.
It will keep me very busy, and my team very busy, for the next 100 or so years
DCI Mark Hooper, ACPO
They also copy the genuine vehicle's log book - or V5 form - by using one of thousands of blank DVLA documents that went missing some time in 2006.
"We're recovering about ten a week and we think there's easily over 120 to 130,000 stolen blank documents out there still," DCI Mark Hooper from the Association of Chief Police Officers' (Acpo) vehicle crime intelligence service, told BBC 5 live's Donal MacIntyre programme.
"It will keep me very busy, and my team very busy, for the next hundred or so years, I suspect."
Buyers duped
Hundreds of people have fallen victim to car cloning and the Acpo unit says it has recovered £13m worth of stolen, cloned vehicles in the past 18 months.
Shona Topping from St Albans was a cautious used-car buyer who had always driven company vehicles
Shona Topping had to surrender her car and lost the £8,000 she paid for it
When she spotted a Mercedes she liked in a magazine, she asked for its registration details so she could run a vehicle data check on its history.
"I took a mechanic along to have a look at the vehicle, carried out the check and obviously, being nervous, I had to do everything possible," she said.
"It tells you on all the advertising that they check various databases, checking with the police on the computers."
But because Shona's car had been cloned, she was actually running data checks on a completely different, legitimate car.
That meant the result came back clean.
Shona lost £8,000 because she paid for the car in cash.
"I actually hold the DVLA responsible because it's operated as a tool for the criminals," she said.
"They definitely would not have been able to carry out this crime without the help of a perfect, blank V5 form".
Precautionary measures
The DVLA has published on its website a list of serial numbers for the blank log books which it believes have gone missing.
Acpo's DCI Mark Hooper advises potential used-car buyers to check the documents' serial numbers against the missing batch.
"If it begins with 'BG' or 'BI' then be cautious and check it," he said.
"The second thing is run a provenance check of the car, to check the car serial numbers all match against the registration database."
"The third thing is inspect the document when you look at it and make sure the number hasn't been altered or tampered with in anyway."
DVLA chief executive Noel Shanahan told 5 live: "When we discovered that these documents had been stolen, we actually went to the police because it is a criminal act.
"If it's a criminal act then clearly we can't be held responsible for that.
"Most importantly our website, at that time and now, has current information on it, on how to avoid being duped into buying a stolen vehicle."
Listen to the full report on the Donal MacIntyre programme on BBC 5 live on Sunday, 31 January 2010 at 2000 GMT or download the free podcast
The police say they could be dealing with the impact of the blunder for over a century.
Criminal gangs use the stolen vehicle registration documents to sell cloned cars on the private market.
The DVLA says it is a criminal activity outside of its control and it is working with the police to stop it.
Car cloning is the vehicle equivalent of identity theft. Gangs copy the number plate and other identifying details of a legitimate car onto a similar, but stolen clone.
It will keep me very busy, and my team very busy, for the next 100 or so years
DCI Mark Hooper, ACPO
They also copy the genuine vehicle's log book - or V5 form - by using one of thousands of blank DVLA documents that went missing some time in 2006.
"We're recovering about ten a week and we think there's easily over 120 to 130,000 stolen blank documents out there still," DCI Mark Hooper from the Association of Chief Police Officers' (Acpo) vehicle crime intelligence service, told BBC 5 live's Donal MacIntyre programme.
"It will keep me very busy, and my team very busy, for the next hundred or so years, I suspect."
Buyers duped
Hundreds of people have fallen victim to car cloning and the Acpo unit says it has recovered £13m worth of stolen, cloned vehicles in the past 18 months.
Shona Topping from St Albans was a cautious used-car buyer who had always driven company vehicles
Shona Topping had to surrender her car and lost the £8,000 she paid for it
When she spotted a Mercedes she liked in a magazine, she asked for its registration details so she could run a vehicle data check on its history.
"I took a mechanic along to have a look at the vehicle, carried out the check and obviously, being nervous, I had to do everything possible," she said.
"It tells you on all the advertising that they check various databases, checking with the police on the computers."
But because Shona's car had been cloned, she was actually running data checks on a completely different, legitimate car.
That meant the result came back clean.
Shona lost £8,000 because she paid for the car in cash.
"I actually hold the DVLA responsible because it's operated as a tool for the criminals," she said.
"They definitely would not have been able to carry out this crime without the help of a perfect, blank V5 form".
Precautionary measures
The DVLA has published on its website a list of serial numbers for the blank log books which it believes have gone missing.
Acpo's DCI Mark Hooper advises potential used-car buyers to check the documents' serial numbers against the missing batch.
"If it begins with 'BG' or 'BI' then be cautious and check it," he said.
"The second thing is run a provenance check of the car, to check the car serial numbers all match against the registration database."
"The third thing is inspect the document when you look at it and make sure the number hasn't been altered or tampered with in anyway."
DVLA chief executive Noel Shanahan told 5 live: "When we discovered that these documents had been stolen, we actually went to the police because it is a criminal act.
"If it's a criminal act then clearly we can't be held responsible for that.
"Most importantly our website, at that time and now, has current information on it, on how to avoid being duped into buying a stolen vehicle."
Listen to the full report on the Donal MacIntyre programme on BBC 5 live on Sunday, 31 January 2010 at 2000 GMT or download the free podcast
0
Comments
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DVLA should cough up to the victim
Poor security on there 'blank v5s' should be locked away in a volt if there blank.0 -
Government Databases eh.Happy chappy0
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DVLA should cough up to the victim
Poor security on there 'blank v5s' should be locked away in a volt if there blank.
I don't agree here as it was a crime and everyone is succeptible to crime. I would expect the DVLA to ensure its public knowledge what happened and be looking at the possibility of replacement log books or a further security over a log book long term.0 -
I'd expect the DVLA to be willing to confirm the registered name & address associated with a reg number over the phone.
This would prevent any fraud arising as a result of their incompetence in losing all the forms as punters could phone and check that the people who claim to be registered keepers actually are.0 -
The DVLA like to have their cake and eat it it seems. They like to make money from illegally selling driver's details. They think they're invincible and never get anything wrong (cue examples of people with driving licenses told by DVLA they don't have one hitting a brick wall because the DVLA are ignorant).
DVLA needs a big overhaul. I wonder how much the DVLA fat cats get paid, I'm sure I could do twice as good a job for less than half the pay.0 -
Anihilator wrote: »I don't agree here as it was a crime and everyone is succeptible to crime. I would expect the DVLA to ensure its public knowledge what happened and be looking at the possibility of replacement log books or a further security over a log book long term.
What if you found out these blank v5s were just laying on a table with access to any dom !!!!!! or harry walking past to pick them up off this table? as vehicle crime and car cloning is a huge thing in the uk i stick by my opinion that any documatation linked with VERY expensive cars which are involved in car crime should be only accessable via some sort of security. If a dvla employee is a theif(fairly likely) then dvla should cough up any losses a poor victim has with a cloned car they have bought via compensation.0 -
The worst thing is when a cloned car sets off a CC camera/ red light camera/ speed camera and the owner gets held liable because they can't conclusively prove that it wasn't their car involved [in real life, the motorist is always considered guilty until proven innocent].0
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. If a dvla employee is a theif(fairly likely) then dvla should cough up any losses a poor victim has with a cloned car they have bought via compensation.
This was not theft, it was incompetence on the part of DVLA, they were apparently produced by mistake and then the DVLA used a ( cheapskate ) contractor to destroy them, obviously they were not destroyed.0 -
don't think it really affects the incompetence argument whether a dvla employee or a dvla sub-contractor stole them0
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update on doc numbers fom DVLA
Be on the lookout for stolen registration certificates. DVLA has provided a range of serial numbers of known stolen registration certificates. If you find one that is in the range of BG8229501 to BG9999030 or BI2305501 to BI2800000 do not proceed with the sale and contact the police.I
MOJACAR0
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