Genuine curiosity - stolen car back up for sale online
Discussion
As titled this is more of a pure curiosity question rather than a legal question, as the car has already been paid out by insurance and is nothing to do with us.
My dad's car was stolen back in July. Insurers gave a very fair offer which we took straightaway.
I did do some checking a couple of days after and as expected, it came up with a stolen marker when I checked the reg online.
I was browsing online earlier today and to my absolute shock, my car was listed for sale online at a dealer, with no mention of any theft, just a totally normal car advert. I've done a HPI check on it and there's no CAT N stolen recovered marker, you would never know it had been stolen. Except...... there are 24,000 more miles on the clock. It was on 49k when it left us, it's now on 73k and this is reflected in a photo of the mileage on the ad and the fresh MOT that has been done.
How on earth is this possible? I've done the math and the thieves would have had to do 200+ miles a day in it. It still has the dealer tailgate sticker, so I don't think the car is cloned unless they've stuck just the tailgate on....
I've been racking my brain for hours and I'm still baffled.
My dad's car was stolen back in July. Insurers gave a very fair offer which we took straightaway.
I did do some checking a couple of days after and as expected, it came up with a stolen marker when I checked the reg online.
I was browsing online earlier today and to my absolute shock, my car was listed for sale online at a dealer, with no mention of any theft, just a totally normal car advert. I've done a HPI check on it and there's no CAT N stolen recovered marker, you would never know it had been stolen. Except...... there are 24,000 more miles on the clock. It was on 49k when it left us, it's now on 73k and this is reflected in a photo of the mileage on the ad and the fresh MOT that has been done.
How on earth is this possible? I've done the math and the thieves would have had to do 200+ miles a day in it. It still has the dealer tailgate sticker, so I don't think the car is cloned unless they've stuck just the tailgate on....
I've been racking my brain for hours and I'm still baffled.
aceofspades1 said:
How on earth is this possible? I've done the math and the thieves would have had to do 200+ miles a day in it. It still has the dealer tailgate sticker, so I don't think the car is cloned unless they've stuck just the tailgate on....
How sure are you that you're not misremembering your old registration???That's seems the most likely explanation given the lack of insurance marker and significant increase in miles.
I'm happy to DM anyone a link to the advert, I think as per the rules you can't post links to adverts.
It's 100% the same car, you can see the sudden jump in the MOT history.
I'm now thinking it was hotwired and they've had to replace the instrument cluster... seems the only logical answer!
It's 100% the same car, you can see the sudden jump in the MOT history.
I'm now thinking it was hotwired and they've had to replace the instrument cluster... seems the only logical answer!
Hugo Stiglitz v2 said:
You're not advertising the car though??!!
Otherwise the high mileage topic wouldn't exist.
Stop teasing.
I'm the original poster who started the thread. It COULD be seen as trying to boost an advertisement and that wasn't the intention, just curiosity. Otherwise the high mileage topic wouldn't exist.
Stop teasing.
If you want to DM me, I'm more than happy to share the link to the advert.
Plus - I don't really want 100+ people seeing the exact advert and one of them potentially tipping off the dealer. Remember, my dad's name and address is probably within the service history!
Edited by aceofspades1 on Thursday 24th October 08:17
ABMA said:
Mark McCann posted a video on YouTube earlier this week (apparently deleted now) where he interviewed one of those professional car theft gangs.
So that’s exactly what happens: a stolen car is given a clean title and goes back to sale with legitimate papers.
Very very sad.
How though?So that’s exactly what happens: a stolen car is given a clean title and goes back to sale with legitimate papers.
Very very sad.
Does the 'stolen' check only show for unrecovered vehicles?
If the OP's car was tracked down and then sold into the trade there would be no need to mark it as stolen any more.
It's in the insurance industry's interest to not permanently mark recovered cars as they will get more money when they sell the cars into the trade.
If the OP's car was tracked down and then sold into the trade there would be no need to mark it as stolen any more.
It's in the insurance industry's interest to not permanently mark recovered cars as they will get more money when they sell the cars into the trade.
zedx19 said:
ABMA said:
Mark McCann posted a video on YouTube earlier this week (apparently deleted now) where he interviewed one of those professional car theft gangs.
So that’s exactly what happens: a stolen car is given a clean title and goes back to sale with legitimate papers.
Very very sad.
How though?So that’s exactly what happens: a stolen car is given a clean title and goes back to sale with legitimate papers.
Very very sad.
Simply they find an identical car with clean title (likely unregistered loss/ damage/ irreparable and use its details (VIN).
They even engrave the ViN into the stolen car, input the VIN into the ECU. There are other details but this is more or less what they do.
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff