Car log books cloned by thieves

01 February 2010

Fraudsters have used stolen blank registration documents to clone the log books of thousands of cars, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).

The DVLA and police are working together to investigate over 11,000 cases of car identity theft, worth more than £13 million.

Up to 130,000 blank documents, stolen from the DVLA in 2006, have not yet been found and police find about 10 faked log books per week, Mark Hooper from Acpo has told BBC 5 Live.

The papers allow thieves to "clone" details of anyone's car. If they have stolen a specific model, they can make it look legitimate by using details of another car of the same make in the log book.

Mr Hooper, who is head of Vehicle Intelligence for Acpo, said: "There are some simple ways in which the public can protect themselves and we urge that every care is taken."

The DVLA said that it runs a hotline for car buyers to double check that a registration certificate is valid.

A spokesman said: "DVLA provides every assistance to help people avoid this, including running an information hotline for the public to check whether a certificate may be invalid prior to the purchase of a vehicle."

A list of the serial numbers of the stolen log books is available on the DVLA website.

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