Cherished Number Plates News

Over two million V5Cs missing from DVLA

03 December 2008

Back in 2006, the DVLA made minor mistakes on a series of car registration certificates. There was a slight defect which was noticed and they were never put into official use. However, the offending documents should have been destroyed by means of a shredder. Instead of that, they went missing and have ended up in the wrong hands. It is believed that somewhere in the region of 2.2 million V5C certificates were taken. The crooks are now using them in an operation to sell stolen cars.

Following the slip up, gangs have been using the documents as official and watermarked log books, leading victims to believe they are buying legitimate car. The fraudsters obtain these documents through criminal sources and use them to replicate the official documentation of a stolen vehicle.

The gang then take the stolen car or behicle to a near-by dodgy workshop where the crooks change the VINs of the cars to be found in the windscreens and in the engine bay, usually stamped using metal plating.

They simplay grind and melt back the original VIN and and stamp on a new one. Leaving an unsuspecting buyer in the thick of things if the vehicle is exposed as a phoney.

The DVLA has issued a warning, telling buyers to watch out for V5Cs with serial numbers in the ranges BG8229501 to BG9999030 or BI2305501 to BI2800000.

Despite this warning, the fraudsters are now said to be slightly altering these documents using crude but effective methods to make the serial numbers fall outside of the suspected range wanted by the DVLA and Police.

This practice has been going on for quite some time now and is helped dramatically by these documents which are in circulation on the black market throughout our country.