VRT and stolen car?

Tipsy Mac

Are there any checks done by Revenue when you import a car into the country that it is not a stolen car? If not what happens if you import a car in and it later turns out to be stolen? From a friend who recently registered a car it seems little or no checks whatsoever are done, not even chassis number checks, is this not a massive lopehole to clean a bent car up and re register it?

kluivert

Trend careful with your questions here with this one.

If your car is discovered to be stolen the Garda have the right to remove it from your procession.

I think Autotrader as some legal advice about this at the front section of its magazine.

smash

so, do you agree with this kind of thing? If you get an HPI report with a uk import you'll see if it's been marked as stolen - that's how you'd get cought! I bought a ul import before, checked the HPI report after the purchase and the car was never even marked as leaving the UK for export - I brought it back.

ando

If you wondering if its stolen get a HPI check or AA inspection done. They will check to see if it has any records of bein stolen or has any outstanding finance. Also check teh V5 cert describes the car in detail. Do NOT accept any excuse from the seller if the V5 does not match the car, thats when you probably have a stolen car

www.hpicheck.com is good and shows a lot of detail, costs about 50 quid

Wibbs

Tipsy Mac wrote:

.... is this not a massive lopehole to clean a bent car up and re register it?

Well you may remember a few years back when there were a fair few dodgy cars coming from Japan and Singapore that had been stolen(mainly 4x4s). So much so that the Japanese cops sent some of their officers over here to follow it up. Ireland was used as a clearing house for stolen cars.

The simple way to stop this from the far east at least, is when you're buying a Jap import insist insist insist on a Japanese auction report. Nobody does and just gets fobbed off by the garage who say they don't get them. They're lying. If they've imported the car they do. If they haven't, why pay extra for some other middleman to pass on a dodgy car straight from the docks.

In my time, I've looked at quite a few jap imports and beyond the usual tarted up dangerous crashed cars(which are very common), I've seen quite a few with suspicious damage that would suggest that they may have been stolen.

Just for research, ring around import dealers and ask for an auction report. You'll be surprised how few have them. I personally wouldn't trust one without it. It also tells you the actual milage and if it was crashed or not.

wingnut

A friend of mine bought a car down from the North. It was a high performance model, she cleared it through customs payed the VRT. Got a knock on the door a few weeks later was the gardai: 'That vehicle is stolen, we'll be taking it'. She got the VRT refunded eventually and a court case is still going.

Moral of the story, paying VRT and clearning for customs is NO guarantee the car hasn't been stolen.

tred

wingnut wrote:

A friend of mine bought a car down from the North. It was a high performance model, she cleared it through customs payed the VRT. Got a knock on the door a few weeks later was the gardai: 'That vehicle is stolen, we'll be taking it'. She got the VRT refunded eventually and a court case is still going.

Moral of the story, paying VRT and clearning for customs is NO guarantee the car hasn't been stolen.

She should have done an HPI check...if she had, and it had passed, they would have payed her 10K. HPI covers for hire purchase and as far as i know if its stolen..or reported stolen.

digitaldr

tred wrote:

She should have done an HPI check...if she had, and it had passed, they would have payed her 10K. HPI covers for hire purchase and as far as i know if its stolen..or reported stolen.

HPI guarantee doesn't seem to cover cars registered in the North:

The vehicle must be bought and registered in mainland Britain (i.e. it excludes Northern Ireland). If it has been imported, HPI does not guarantee its history prior to arrival in this country.

tred

digitaldr wrote:

HPI guarantee doesn't seem to cover cars registered in the North:

wow...there must be some way up north?. I wonder if u had the reg and VIN number are the insurance companies linked to any database where a claim might have being made against it for being stolen??