Fake Service History And Provenance

If you have bought a car which has been misrepresented or misdescribed, with fake or false service history, ownership and or provenance, call The Car Lawyer for first free advice.

We are arguably the number one firm for cases involving automotive fraud, dodgy car traders and civil fraud, involving the sale of classic cars, supercars and luxury vehicles in the UK and internationally.

Our knowledge and experience of the methods employed by criminals and dodgy car dealers, and the tricks of the motor trade in general is second to none.

Car fraud

The value of a car, its desirability and saleability are determined by a number of factors. These include the:

• availability and rarity of the car, for example whether it’s a limited edition and whether it was owned by a famous person or used in a film or TV show.
• number of previous keepers or owners,
• mileage and
• service history

As a result, rogue dealers, sellers and traders will go to sometime extraordinary lengths to create fake history to increase profits, often significantly, amounting to the claim of civil action or fraudulent misrepresentation and/or a crime under the Fraud Act 2006.

It is of course possible for a car dealer to sell a car or van unaware of the fake service history. This would potentially be innocent or negligent misrepresentation.

Commonly, fake history occurs with vehicles which pre-date computer service records and those which have been imported into the UK, for obvious reasons; the difficulty in corroborating the paperwork.

Prime candidates for automotive fraud are therefore:

• vintage and classic cars
• left hand drive cars
• right hand drive vehicles supplied in the UK which have been exported and later imported back to the UK
• cars which have been imported from countries which drive on the same side at the UK

Paper-based service book, history and documents

Main dealers and many independent servicing garages use ink stamps to stamp the service book in the appropriate place and tick the type of service carried out and sign it. These stamps often bear the manufacturer’s logo, such as the BMW propeller logo, Ferrari prancing horse an so on, and use specific or unique font, making it difficult to replicate.

This simply created a market for these stamps, where criminals seek to entice employees to sell them the service stamps.

Duplicate service books and original uncompleted service books are readily available, providing the crooks with the tools to produce what, to all intents and purposes, appears to be genuine service history.

Technology has made this in many respects easier with the ability to electrically copy and edit original documents, enabling criminals to produce a folder of service receipts, service history and documents which to the uninitiated seem legitimate.

Electronic service history

Modern vehicles record the mileage electrically and monitor when the vehicle requires servicing and when it’s been serviced. This information is recorded in the vehicle ECU and often in the key.

However, this can be manipulated, and although the data is recorded by the main dealer service department and sometimes the manufacturer, there is rarely a central database on which all the servicing is recorded.

As a result, fake computer service records can be produced, which may be difficult to corroborate if the servicing dealer is no longer trading or has been bought out to a dealer group.

Case examples

• A used Ferrari originally sold new in Russia, imported and registered in the UK which presented a service book seemingly originally supplied by Ferrari Moscow detailing the first 4 years of service history [in Russian]. Subsequently, the Ferrari was apparently serviced by an independent Ferrari specialist as evidenced by the service stamp. All the servicing was found to be fake, resulting in over £50,000 increase in the car value.
• A late model BMW X5 imported into England from Australia via Ireland, which unbeknown to the buyer had been driven for over 120,000 miles rather than the 25,000 displayed on the clock. The service records were genuine, just not for that car and the registration number and VIN had been edited.
• A Porsche Boxster, which had been exported to Ireland soon after first registration and imported back to the mainland seven years later. The service history book showed several English Porsche main dealer stamps and several Porsche specialist service stamps. All looked genuine but none were. The Porsche had been clocked by around 50,000 miles.
• A vintage Rolls Royce, exported from the UK to Australia sold by an intermediary or broker. As is often the case, this Rolls Royce was bought having relied on photographs and scan copies of the documents. Inevitably the buyer did not find out the reality of the vehicle history until is was delivered.