How to steal a car and get away with it!!

[V Mad]

I was just reading 'Your Letters' in the latest Practical Classics when I noticed a letter entitled 'Bang to Wrongs'

This chap explained that someone apparently stole his car without him knowing until some time later. When he discovered the theft he reported it to the police who told him that it cannot be flagged by him as stolen because it is registered by another person. Despite contacting various organisations (PCC etc), it appears that no one can do anything to recover his stolen car. Neither will the DVLA tell him who it is now registered to. This us almost unbelievable!

Can this happen to you and me? How can we prove we own our cars in a situation like this?

[Kevin Garrod]

Did they steal the logbook too?

[AlanD]

the log book is just proof of the registered keeper, the owner is the person who has the bill of sale, thats what i have always believed and been told, it even states on the log book ' registered keeper'

alan

[mjheathcote]

I've just received the v5 for the Maserati I am buying, in my name, and it has plastered across the front 'this document is not proof of ownership, but who it responsible for registering and taxing the vehicle', quite fitting, as I haven't collected it or paid for it yet!

[Kevin Garrod]

The registered keeper isn't necessarily the owner but is the person responsible for the vehicle. If you don't have the v5 c when you buy a vehicle you can still apply for a new v5 from the dvla but they will write to the last registered keeper to confirm the change. If the logbook had been stolen with the car it would explain how this might have happened.

[chriswt]

If I had no choice left I'd get the plates of my stolen car reproduced and then build up a huge collection of parking tickets and other such fines. You could easily build up a few thousand pounds were of costs.

I doubt the new owner is going to want to contact the police to say the car he stole has had its plates copied!

[StagnJag]

My modern car is in the odd situation of having 1 previous owner and two previous keepers! it was a BP company car and they are down as the registered keeper for 1 day, then it was passed on to the user of the car, until it was sold to me.

Rgds

Dave

[martin]

I've just received the v5 for the Maserati I am buying, in my name, and it has plastered across the front 'this document is not proof of ownership, but who it responsible for registering and taxing the vehicle', quite fitting, as I haven't collected it or paid for it yet!

A Mazzer ? bit posh ! have you got the right forum ? Which one ?
No chance of that happening to me - I'm outside looking at it every twenty minutes ! Martin.

[mjheathcote]

Yah the right forum. Just collected the Maserati today, a '02 4200 Cambiocorsa Coupe. Since getting my first company car 11 years ago I have always kept a second car to go with the Stag, my reasoning being should I change jobs and loose the company car, I have a car ready and waiting without suddenly having to find the money to buy one. Anyway that's been my excuse for the last 10 years or so! I've also been very lucky, the Lotus Elise I have recently sold after owning for 8 years I only lost £1k in depreciation, unbelievable to be honest, and the Maserati I hope will not depreciate too much. A bit of a find, a 2 owner car with less than 11.5k miles from new, totally mint, and less than a quarter of it's value when new, which was £70k!! Cheers,Mike

[jbuckl]

The v5 is a means to provide the state with a way to ensure v.e.d. can be collected.

It gives the keeper/holder the right to pay the v.e.d.

Not much else really.

MJ H > the 1k depreciation will be hard to beat with a mazzer.

We have an employee who treated himself to an £88K new Gran Turismo this year....for a laugh we did a 'we buy any car' on it when it was 6mths old (it had 'lost' £36k)

The 1st 6mths v.e.d was £950 !!!!

3000 miles cost £1300 in fuel.

different world

[Duncan Skye]

Yes this guy was passed from department to department and organisation to organisation within the structure that you'd reasonably have thought would have been able to help.

I didn't really know why, but I permanently marked a number that is known only to me on a normally inaccessible part of the interior of the car so that if there was ever such a question of my ownership arising, I'd be able to say to the officer what he'd find if he looked there. And the existing owner wouldn't know what it meant or wouldn't be able to explain how it got there. I know its not the answer to everything, but it may raise doubts over the person who claims to be the current owner and get some people thinking.

Not much else one can do except rely on the system to protect us!

Love the idea about the parking fines, though. It would force the current 'owner' to sell the car because the hassle wouldn't be worth it, then the rightful owner could snap it up at a bargain basement price because it was a 'ringer'..

That's my tuppenceworth,

Duncan, Skye