'Write-off' owners get warning

THE DEPARTMENT of Transport has written to 1,117 car-owners warning that their cars were previously classified as write-offs, and urging them to check the roadworthiness as a matter of urgency. The letters follow the cross-checking of data on 27,400 write-offs from insurance companies against the State vehicle register.

These checks found 1,117 write-offs had been re-registered or retaxed and are in use on public roads.

The owners of such vehicles have been instructed to take "urgent action" to ensure their car is safe and, if they have already sold it, to provide details of the new owners to the department. The move follows an investigation led by the Road Safety Authority that found written-off cars were being repaired and returned to the roads.

This happened because there was no complete State register of written-off cars to which write-offs could be reported. In the letter, the department notes that previously written-off vehicles may have been insured because most insurers do not check the vehicle's history.

As a result, insurers agreed to hand over their records on write-offs to the department on a voluntary basis and write-offs notified by insurers are now being listed on the National Vehicle Driver File. This will prevent write-offs from being taxed or resold. It is not clear how many of the 1,117 former write-offs were imported from the UK. The details of written-off vehicles are being forwarded on to the Garda.

The Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said last night he was "pleased that we have been able to work so well in recent months with motor insurers and the gardaí to ensure that potentially dangerous vehicles cannot in future make their way onto our roads".

The extent of the problem first came to light over a year ago following an investigation by privately-owned car-checking website Cartell.ie, which allows prospective buyers do a background check on a vehicle.

Jeff Aherne of Cartell.ie said when they carried out an analysis of registration numbers checked by prospective buyers since the summer, they found 1,229 of the vehicles had been re-registered in the State. Of these, 19 per cent - or 242 - had previously been registered as written-off in the UK.

Aherne said part of the reason for this may be existing owners checking whether their car had been involved in a collision.

The Government is planning to introduce a vehicle roadworthiness check for imported cars as part of the Finance Bill 2009.