► Heard a rather disturbing story the other day. A guy was selling a car – an enquirer called and after a fairly short conversation, asked for, and was given, an address for a viewing. However, they never turned up.
Two days later someone else called and again asked a few questions. He then said that he wanted to view, but as he was going to be travelling some distance, wanted first to do an HPI check. Could he therefore please have the V5C serial number. Because the seller wasn’t a trader, he didn’t know that this information is NOT required for an HPI check, and provided this. A couple of days later, the car was stolen off his driveway.
Later, the seller got the standard “thank you for telling us you have sold/ transferred this vehicle” note from DVLA. In other words, the thief had used the address to locate the car, and the address and V5C reference number to notify transfer of ownership online!
Worse, though, was to come. Naturally, the owner told DVLA straightaway, and also added the new information to his police report believing, reasonably enough, that with the thief having applied for a V5C, tracing him, and the return of his property was simple. However, the thief’s almost-breathtakingly arrogant response was that he HAD bought the car, and as evidence he produced a (forged) receipt and a bank statement showing a cash withdrawal which, allegedly, was used to pay for it!
Fortunately, the owner was able to convince the police that the car had been stolen. I’m not, though, going to go into how he did this, just in case any other would-be thieves are reading this. The car was, though, returned to its rightful owner and the thief is, I believe, now serving a prison sentence. It could easily, though, have ended a lot, lot less happily.
The message is simple; a V5C’
