Reporting a 'clocked' car to the police...

SteveJW

MORE MILEAGE OUT OF MOT CERTIFICATES
As of 18 November, MOT certificates – VT20s – will show the mileage of the vehicle for the last three certificates, along with mileage for the current test.


Vehicle and Operator Services Agency sent this bulletin at 12-09-2012 09:42 AM BST

CKhalvashi

SteveJW wrote: »

MORE MILEAGE OUT OF MOT CERTIFICATES
As of 18 November, MOT certificates – VT20s – will show the mileage of the vehicle for the last three certificates, along with mileage for the current test.


Vehicle and Operator Services Agency sent this bulletin at 12-09-2012 09:42 AM BST

This is no good if a car is clocked just before the MoT each year.

I've just got rid of my '61' plate car, which had 106,482 miles on it (registered on 1st Sep. 2011). It looked/drove like it had 10% of that (as it had been signwritten for a year, protecting the paintwork). How easy would it have been to falsify the servicing manual, as noone 'official' knew it had 100k+ on it, purely due to the age of the car; it was between me and Dagenham Motors.

CK

mo786uk

Trading Standards AND the Police can prosecute clocked cars. However, if the seller is doing it an a private citizens then it is unlikely anyone will bother to follow it up.

Here is an example of a recent TS prosecution.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/prison-for-menace-dealer-who-clocked-second-hand-cars-1-4214069

Proving who clocked the car requires a fair bit of evidence to prove who eactly clocked it.

Kite2010

CKhalvashi wrote: »

This is no good if a car is clocked just before the MoT each year.

I've just got rid of my '61' plate car, which had 106,482 miles on it (registered on 1st Sep. 2011). It looked/drove like it had 10% of that (as it had been signwritten for a year, protecting the paintwork). How easy would it have been to falsify the servicing manual, as noone 'official' knew it had 100k+ on it, purely due to the age of the car; it was between me and Dagenham Motors.

CK

It's a good point, there is a bit of a trade in clocking new cars which have been purchased/leased on contracts with millage limits, with charges for every mile over. Just before the service they get someone in with a laptop to reduce the miles down to below the limit to avoid paying any fees. All done before it gets a stamp in the service book.

3 years down the line when it comes to getting rid of the car, it might say it's done 27K miles, but in fact it's done 45K, but who will be any of the wiser?

phill99

TS will handle this. I was on a jury sometime ago and it was a guy who had been clocking cars. The case was bought by TSE, not the police.

captfizz

i have a similar problem but i purchased a car from a dealer off gumtree (he told me he was a dealer) i met him at his address (the map on gumtree) the car was a 55 ford focus with just under 85,000 on the clock & all was in order when i checked against insurance etc. the car came with a full service history which was stamped in a ford focus book & a new style MOT certificate.
i paid cash for the car as i just sold my old car the same way which was advertised outside my house.
i took the car for a test drive which it drove fine with no problems & in fact out of the 5 or 6 focus's i'd seen over the past few weeks this was the best one.
however when i got home i decided to get the MOT history from VOSA & then i discovered that this car had actually done 146,000 miles according to the last MOT entered onto the VOSA website.
i then checked the service history & found this to be fraud as well as the MOT certifcate i was given with the car which had the false mileage on.
i contacted the seller through the gumtree number & said i wanted to return the car but surprise he has been uncontactable since.
i cannot get his contact details from gumtree (he has been selling through them since 2007) as they must abide by the data protection act & after contacting a CAB consumer phone number am left feeling that there's no way i can get my money back ... there's even a probability that the seller has't sent off the log book & even though i have the green slip apparently that's no proof of ownership.
i have been well & truly duped & then i get idiots saying it's my fault because i didn't check the mot slip before i brought it... that's like saying if my kid gets run over on the way to school it's my fault for not taking them in the car.... the fault lies with the crooked dealer even if he didn't clock the car himself he should have checked to see if the car was genuine & if unsure shouldn't have advertised it with the 84,000miles & full service history.

arcon5

Your receipt will be proof of ownership and the green slip will corroborate this. Any problems you can apply for the log book directly with the DVLA - although I see no reason why the guy wouldn't send the log book off, after all it won't affect the fact he now has your money!

Hoof_Hearted

When buying a car privately, don't just look at the car. Make judgements about the character of the seller and ensure it is his/her home address. I wouldn't buy privately unless the seller was at the address in the log sheet.