We were critical of the VIA;and expected a reply, not
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least to the suggested remedies. We heard nothing. The implication was that as journalists we were getting hot under the collar about a minor difficulty that had been blown out of allproportion. The murder of two VI inspectors show two things: the VI is taking the problem seriously, and the scale of the problem may be even greater than anyone suspected.
The statistics certainly suggest that there is a ready market for stolen test certificates, whether for cars or goods vehicles. Last year 120,000 MoT certificates were stolen, reportedly worth more than E7m on the black market. Up to the end of October this year 6,500 test certificates had been stolen from the VIA's 91 goods vehicle test stations— an increase of 31% on the 1992 record of 3,632 LGV and 1,300 trailer certificates.
Those figures are even more worrying when
Safety standards in road haulage are under attack by professional criminals including cold blooded killers.
you recall that only 2,000 certificates were stolen in 1991—and none atoll in the previous two years. Who are the traders in stolen test certificates? The cowboy operator who has ignored his 0licence maintenance obligations must be a potential customer. So is the unscrupulous used truck dealer who can sell an unroadworthy vehicle on to an unsuspecting customer with the bogus credentials of a forged test certificate. The deaths of Alan Singleton and Simon Bruno from the Bredbury, Stockport LGV test station indicate that those responsible are not light fingered clerical staff out to make a quick buck. Safety standards in road haulage are under attack by professional criminals including cold-blooded killers. CM joins with the rest of the industry in hoping that the killer and his accomplices are brought to justice soon. This case makes one thing clear: the stakes are so high that simply tightening up security is not enough. With millions of pounds at stake MoT certificates would have to be kept in bank vaults. The alternative must be to make stolen certificates worthless. That implies replacing the existing paper certificates with a more sophisticated system, or setting up a directory of stolen certificates which can be used by the general public to check on their authenticity. It often takes a catastrophic event to act as a catalyst for change. If any good is to come out of the shocking deaths of Alan Singleton and Simon Bruno it must be t at the trade in stolen vehicle test certificates is finally brought to an end.