Anywhere to check if car is stolen for FREE

colino

Great example you use of a robust database, the .gov consumer vehicle checker has crashed more times in the past 5 weeks than its been up and running.
The systems that would most certainly be overloaded would be the complaints to Police, and onward handling, of a potential crime that may or not have been made on the say-so of a civilian.
As your initial post linked your vague belief of the suitability of another road user to drive competently with the sure logic it might have been stolen fairly well indicates how much mileage the idea has.

EdGasket

colino wrote: »

Great example you use of a robust database, the .gov consumer vehicle checker has crashed more times in the past 5 weeks than its been up and running.
The systems that would most certainly be overloaded would be the complaints to Police, and onward handling, of a potential crime that may or not have been made on the say-so of a civilian.
As your initial post linked your vague belief of the suitability of another road user to drive competently with the sure logic it might have been stolen fairly well indicates how much mileage the idea has.

If your car was stolen wouldn't you like the public looking out for it? If not to recover it then at least to stop some low-life joyriding around in it.

Anyway question asked to 'AskThe Police' as per post 8; we'll see what they say.

forgotmyname

I think the public will have better things to do than spend all their life checking some database to see if a car has been reported stolen.

How many cars a day will you be checking? How will you know if the owner has just collected their recovered car and on their way home or to the repairers?

40+ cars on my part of the street alone. Do i go out every hour and make sure none of them have been reported stolen?

Have you thought of joining the police force? Free checks for you then.

If not you seriously need to stop in more and get a hobby.

EdGasket

Its usually not too difficult to spot a suspect car and occupants acting suspiciously. Had a drug-dealing issue recently down the road. I see nothing wrong with 'curtain-twitching' if it helps clean the area up. Can't see what your problem is forgetmyname and colino?

forgotmyname

Drug dealers dont usually have stolen cars. Its either hired, leased or rented in someone elses name maybe but not stolen.

So your check would be pointless.

I dont have a problem except that you think the general public will be checking to see if all the cars parked in a street are on some stolen vehicle register.

Seems like something only you require.

You could start your own HPI stlye company and check as many cars as you like.

fivetide

EdGasket wrote: »

Its usually not too difficult to spot a suspect car and occupants acting suspiciously. Had a drug-dealing issue recently down the road. I see nothing wrong with 'curtain-twitching' if it helps clean the area up. Can't see what your problem is forgetmyname and colino?

Drug dealers tend not to have stolen cars - attracts plod and they don't like that.


They did, however used to have untaxed cars and uninsured ones. It is one of the benefits of ANPR.


Cars would be swapped in exchange for drugs but not registered to the new owner and therefore not an asset. Trouble is, unregistered car can't be taxed. My pal used to work with the DVLA and Police lifting cars like this off the streets. Took two BMW M3's off a bloke once.

EdGasket

forgotmyname wrote: »

I dont have a problem except that you think the general public will be checking to see if all the cars parked in a street are on some stolen vehicle register.

No that is not what I think. I said 'suspicious car' e.g. a car not owned by anyone in the road suddenly appears; it looks a bit scraped, it is not parked very well; it has been there for a few days. We have had that sort of thing from time to time. Now rather than take up police time logging an incident on 101, what is wrong with checking online if that car is stolen first?

mcpitman

EdGasket wrote: »

No that is not what I think. I said 'suspicious car' e.g. a car not owned by anyone in the road suddenly appears; it looks a bit scraped, it is not parked very well; it has been there for a few days. We have had that sort of thing from time to time. Now rather than take up police time logging an incident on 101, what is wrong with checking online if that car is stolen first?

Nothing wrong with the OP's request to see if this information is available.

Why not? Just like the way you can see if a car is insured for free.

I think the logistical problem would be updating the data in "real time". The insurance database the police use for Insurance checks doesn't update in real time, normally on overnight or batched downloads through the day.

I know this because I was ANPR'd and pulled within 500 yards of picking my new car up. I was insured however and a quick call to my insurance company with the policeman present soon resolved that :beer:

No different to how if you saw an untaxed car because of no tax disc you could report this.... oh hang on we can't do that anymore, because soon no-one will have a tax disc. :mad:

forgotmyname

EdGasket wrote: »

No that is not what I think. I said 'suspicious car' e.g. a car not owned by anyone in the road suddenly appears; it looks a bit scraped, it is not parked very well; it has been there for a few days. We have had that sort of thing from time to time. Now rather than take up police time logging an incident on 101, what is wrong with checking online if that car is stolen first?

If you think its suspicious then report it.

EdGasket

OK so I emailed askthe.police and got the rather unhelpful reply that there was no such database for the public which is what I had already said in my enquiry. A further followup email prompted a little more information; that they currenctly had no plans to make this information available to the public but to raise it with the local Police Commissioner. So now I have done that and am waiting for a reply though really it needs to be a national initiative.