The Automobile Association is insisting the Government urgently close a loophole that enables anyone to obtain vehicle transfer of ownership papers without the lawful owner's knowledge.
The call comes as a review is under way into aspects of the registration system that allow anyone to track down the name and address
of a vehicle's owner.
The AA said yesterday that although ownership papers may not officially confer actual legal ownership, they created such an appearance of ownership as to make it much easier for someone to commit fraud.
"With tens of thousands of cars stolen each year, car theft is enough of an industry as it is without the motor vehicle register being open to the potential of systematic abuse by car thieves."
The problem was highlighted on the Fair Go television programme on Wednesday.
Land Transport Safety Authority spokesman Andy Knackstedt said the organisation was looking at ways to ensure its agents were made aware if a vehicle someone was seeking to register had been reported stolen.
The AA said in this era of instant electronic communication, it was hard to comprehend why the police's computers had not been set up to alert the motor vehicle registration system as soon as a vehicle was reported stolen.
- NZPA
