Stolen Vehicles

[exdos]

A friend went away for the weekend and his house was broken into and his new car was stolen with the keys. How would the thief now manage to dispose of this car to make money. Bearing in mind the value of a new car, surely any potential purchaser would do an HPI check on the vehicle against the VIN displayed on the car?

I'd like to know the "mechanics" of how such thieves operate.

[Havard]

Probably shipped over to Nigeria or Somalia and purchased there.

[Mighty1]

Agree whisked to the port then abroad but you'd be surprised how often someone will buy a car privately with just the number plates changed or should I say that was my experience when I was working for a living (no im not a car thief )
I worked on the other side to them supposedly the good guys
Geoff

[Ewazix]

Africa and now Thailand are apparently the top RHD export destinations for UK stolen cars either whole ,or broken down and re-assembled https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... n-thailand

[sticky]

More value in parts ...parts are also good abroad for lhd and rhd many parts the same

[IRD]

Had a Discovery stolen a few years ago. Long story but it was broken up for parts and shipped to the Middle East.

[cj10jeeper]

3 years ago I was in The Lebanon and you could see all the lines of UK and other EU country registered cars on the docks waiting to find their new owners. No attempt to even hide them as they came out containers

That said don't forget that Landies brerak nicely and parts retrofit lots or if one's been crashed it's easy enough to clone it

[MACK]

On top of what everyone else is saying it could just be for a criminal to drive around on false plates for while. A ram raid, they literally could be doing anything with it!
In answer to your question you'd be surprised how many folks have never heard of a HPI check even in this day and age. People are stupid and blinded by a bargain, how many times do you hear on these consumer shows of saps buying a 15k for 5k and then being amazed when it turns out to be a stolen/cloned/rung vehicle.

[Rusky]

On top of what everyone else is saying it could just be for a criminal to drive around on false plates for while. A ram raid, they literally could be doing anything with it!
In answer to your question you'd be surprised how many folks have never heard of a HPI check even in this day and age. People are stupid and blinded by a bargain, how many times do you hear on these consumer shows of saps buying a 15k for 5k and then being amazed when it turns out to be a stolen/cloned/rung vehicle.

Agree, mate of mine had his M140 nicked only 800 miles on the clock and he had it from new, they found it a few months later with about 6500 worth of damage. it had just been used for criminal activities, scum bags

[philbo909]

I had a year old Citroën stolen a couple of years ago and all they did was use it to transport the stolen goods, then parked it up, no damage but emptied. So that's the best case scenario...
But by the time they found it I'd already bought a pig of a e46 318i

[DPG]

Mine was stolen, false plates put on and used for more criminal activity.

[Angelus666]

when cloning a plate, doesn't the insurance throw up a discrepancy when it 'already' has a policy on it?

[sticky]

when cloning a plate, doesn't the insurance throw up a discrepancy when it 'already' has a policy on it?

Yep,,,but then the police have to go and check it out,,,,,,might take a while

[exdos]

Thanks for all the responses. I am now a lot wiser. Why is our penal system so relatively lenient with the scum who cause a trail of misery behind them?