Labour proposes outlawing vehicle clocking in Road Traffic Bill
Issued : Tuesday 15 June, 2010
Labour Transport Spokesperson Tommy Broughan TD has urged Transport Minister Noel Dempsey to accept a new series of measures to outlaw vehicle clocking in the new Road Traffic Bill 2009.
Deputy Broughan said: “The tampering with a vehicle’s odometer and false reduction of its mileage is a very disturbing practice in the motor industry that can have a disastrous effect on road safety.
"Clocking a car increases its sale price for the vendor but at the same time creates a higher risk of breakdowns and difficulties with the brakes and steering for a motorist who has unwittingly bought a clocked car.
“Previous investigations by the car history check company Cartell.ie found, for example that 20% of used cars that were imported from Britain and Northern Ireland had been clocked.
"Cartell.ie has also estimated that as many as 200,000 cars on Irish roads may have been clocked.
“Yet incredibly it does not seem to be a criminal offence to interfere and tamper with vehicles in this dangerous way.
“Now Cartell.ie have published a set of legislative proposals to make vehicle clocking an offence, as well as creating the offences of offering for sale a motor vehicle with a tampered odometer and of signing a false mileage certificate for a vehicle (which Cartell.ie rightly suggest should accompany all vehicles on point of sale).
"The penalty for vehicle clocking would be a fine of up to €5000 or up to three months imprisonment on summary conviction or up to €10,000 and up to two years imprisonment on conviction on indictment.
“On behalf of the Labour Party, I have now asked Minister Dempsey to examine and accept these amendments as part of the Road Traffic Bill 2009 when it returns at Committee and Report Stage to the Dáil this week and to urgently put measures in place to outlaw this dubious and dangerous practice.”
