WHERE DO STOLEN CARS GO?

Hokitika Guardian, 7 January 1926, Page 1

WHERE DO STOLEN CARS GO?

LONDON. November 7. A considerable increase in the number of motor-car thefts lias lately been reported from London and all parts of the country, and there are grounds for the belief that there exists an organisation for dealing with stolen ears, either by selling them in this country or shipping them abroad. The solicitor of a large organisation of motorists said to a reporter yesterday: There must he a traffic in these stolen ears. Theives cannot dispose or them readily in this country owing to the existing system of registration, flow they are shipped abroad wo do not know, but elaborate precautions must ho taken to disguise them by erasing engine numbers, repainting the bodies, and generally camouflaging them.”

Apparently there are no statistics showing the number of motor vehicles stolen every year, but the reward notices ‘affixed Ito the notice boards of police-stations bear testimony to the wide-spread thefts.

The solicitor continued : *• There has been a big increase in the stealing of cars as a result of the hire-purchase system. The method adopted is to pay a few instalments on a ear and then sell it. Dealers and private individauls should insist when buying second-hand cars upon seeing a clean receipt from the makers or agents for the whole of the purchase money. Cars purchased on the hire-purchase system remain the property of the firm selling them until the last instalment is paid, although they are registered in the name of purchaser.” An official of the Automobile Association said that car thieves were so expert now that within twenty-four hours of a car being brought into their workshops they could change its character entirely. Engine numbers would be erased, an engine might he taken out of one chassis and put into another, and bodies repainted. The registration system became of less value as the skill of the thieves increased.