| I told three Ministers [Transport, Police and Fair Trading] that a great many written off vehicles are purchased at auction by “back-yard” repairers, cosmetically repaired and put back on the road in an unsafe condition. Many of these vehicles are death traps.
We also argued that there is also substantial evidence highlighting that the availability of repairable written-off vehicles is significantly contributing to motor vehicle based crime in this State.
The Minister for Transport, the Hon. David Campbell, has just announced that the Government will legislate to have all written off vehicles declared statutory write-offs and thus will not be allowed to be re-registered in NSW. We believe that the industry will welcome any effort to reduce criminal activity and unsafe vehicles on our roads.
The decision announced by the Minister, David Campbell, shows that the NSW Government recognises the seriousness of this growing problem and has the courage to act in the best interest of NSW consumers.
Negative comments on this decision have been made by the Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council [MVTRC] – all should be reminded that this Council is heavily funded by the Insurance Industry and it is no surprise to us that the Council is making comments that would please insurers. In fact, we have a letter from the Insurance Council of Australia implying that their financial support to the MVTRC would be withdrawn if it did not stop supporting moves to get rid of repairable write-offs.
Written-off vehicles are assessed by insurance companies as unfit for repair and so it is distressing that approximately 20,000+ of these vehicles are presented for re-registration each year. According to the RTA 60% of these vehicles have doubtful repairs.
It is important to note that whilst the overall motor vehicle theft figures have reduced in recent years the number of vehicles that are unrecovered each year has remained static and in some years actually increased.
There are, on average 19,000 vehicles stolen in NSW each year and last year around 5,700 have not been recovered.
When a vehicle is unrecovered it is usually an indication that professional gangs are involved.
Professional gangs employ a variety of methods to cover their crimes and re-birthed vehicles find their way back into the market, usually purchased privately from an unknown person. The unsuspecting buyer then finds out the vehicle has previously been written-off and in some instances the vehicle is seized by Police as it has been repaired using stolen parts or the identifiers have been interfered with.
Even if a vehicle is not repaired using stolen parts, backyarders repair the written off vehicle using whatever means necessary and have no regard for the ongoing safety of the vehicle. |
