A Canterbury woman whose car was stolen says she’s frustrated police won’t investigate because the offender registered the stolen car in their name.

Steph Mitchell said she was tricked into handing over her 2006 Toyota Caldina, to someone she thought was a potential buyer.

She and her partner owned the vehicle for about 7 months which they bought on Facebook.

“We did all the appropriate before-buy checks to ensure the car was completely satisfactory, and not stolen, and went ahead and traded our utility vehicle for this car. We changed the ownership and everything was fine.”

Mitchell said she recently decided to sell the vehicle and listed it on Trademe and Facebook for sale.

“A woman came to our place for a viewing and went for a test drive and didn’t return the car.”

Mitchell said she found out that the offender then called the police to report the car stolen, after putting the vehicle in her name a few days earlier.

Mitchell said the police couldn’t really do much because she said NZTA didn’t require proof of ownership.

However, an NZTA spokeswoman said “the difference between a ‘registered person’ and ‘legal owner’ of a motor vehicle in New Zealand is an important distinction, but one which isn’t widely understood.

Being the ‘registered person in charge’ of a vehicle does not provide legal title or ownership in the legal sense.”

The spokeswoman said “while many people still think of the registration papers as ‘ownership’ papers this isn’t the case, and it never has been the case in New Zealand. The Motor Vehicle Register (MVR) is an enforcement register, not a register of legal ownership or title.

It exists mainly so that authorities (Police, Waka Kotahi, local authorities) can send notices for fees, fines and tickets to the person who is in charge of a vehicle.”

The spokespersons said, “a person cannot claim legal title or ownership simply by putting a vehicle in their name as the registered person on the Motor Vehicle Registration form – they would need to have some other evidence to support legal title or ownership – i.e. a sales agreement, receipt, or some kind of record of the vehicle being sold to them.”

“Criminals exploiting the vehicle registration system”

However, the editor of the car review website dogandlemon.com said “criminals are openly exploiting the vehicle registration system to steal and often on-sell stolen cars without penalty.”

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson said “thanks to an incredibly slack vehicle registration system, criminals are stealing vehicles by simply going online and transferring the ownership. They often then sell these stolen vehicles and walk away with the cash.”

“Worse, the police seem largely uninterested in catching these criminals. Many people will be shocked to learn that, when you’re changing the ownership on a vehicle, there’s no legal requirement for you to front up in person and show some identification.”

Matthew-Wilson said “therefore, criminals are free to simply steal your car, go online and transfer the vehicle into their name or the name of an associate.

They need to supply someone’s driver’s licence number, but that’s all.

“These criminals are then free to sell your car and move on. Yet, the police usually assume that the new registered owner is the legal owner, often without any further investigation.”

Matthew-Wilson said he’s heard of dozens of similar stories. He claims that the police are often “worse than slack” when it comes to investigating these kinds of vehicle thefts. 

He says it’s a ‘no-brainer’ to sort out these scams.

“First, there needs to be a legal requirement that the ownership of a vehicle can only be changed by the registered owner, who must provide photo ID at a physical location, such as a Post Office or AA centre.

Second, the police need to get off their backsides and investigate these cases. Otherwise, the police and government are both going to lose the trust of the public.

“At present, any crook can simply steal a vehicle, change the ownership online, sell the vehicle and keep the money. The simple fact is, in many cases, these crooks get away with it, because the police are either too busy or too slack to do their job.”