Imported cars branded as write-offs being sold by dealers

UNSCRUPULOUS motor dealers are fixing up and selling imported cars branded write-offs in Britain in a scam described by industry insiders as “absolutely disgraceful”.

The cars are being bought at auction in Britain and brought over in transport lorries to be worked on here, then re-registered and sold on to unsuspecting customers.

Chief executive of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), Cyril McHugh, said: “It’s frightening to think drivers would be in these sort of cars in a crash because they would not have a chance. People would be driving in time bombs,”

Reliable sources revealed details of how the scam works. They said lorries packed to capacity with wrecked cars are being imported to Ireland on weekly runs. Only a handful of individuals are involved. They purchase the cars at auction yards in the UK.

The cars are marked from grades A to D for insurance purposes with the latter being the most badly damaged.

Those in categories A and B are sold to British buyers solely for scrap but it’s precisely the other cars - the cheapest - the Irish dealers are buying up.

They cobble them together with parts of other cars - sometimes, it is alleged, stolen to order - and then re-register them before selling them.

The cars are fixed to look near perfect. One industry source said: “All the innocent purchaser sees is the finished article and an Irish registration. If pressed, the seller may say that it suffered a minor bit of damage.”

Gardaí are understood to be aware of the practice but proving a case is difficult. One source revealed an instance when a car was seized and the chassis and engine number identified it is a crashed vehicle.

The owner said the cab or shell was from the original vehicle but photographs showed the upper part of the car was completely wrecked in the crash. “It is only a assumption that it came from a stolen vehicle. You cannot prove it,” said one garda source.

There is no requirement for the car to undergo a National Car Test if it’s under four years old.

Mr McHugh, the motor industry chief executive, said all cars imported from the United Kingdom and re-registered must be obliged to go through the National Car Test, regardless of age.