MOTOR vehicle dealers are hopeful that the recent prosecution of a Trigg man for unlicensed vehicle dealing will be the first of many.
MOTOR vehicle dealers are hopeful that the recent prosecution of a Trigg man for unlicensed vehicle dealing will be the first of many.
The Motor Trades Association has taken the step of hiring private investigators to gather evidence on unlicensed car dealers because it has long complained that the Government is not doing enough about them.
The Department of Consumer and Employment Protection set up an inspectorate to catch unlicensed car dealers but it is yet to make a prosecution.
It is understood that several of the inspectorate’s investigations are on the verge of coming to fruition, however.
The prosecution of Brent Willoughby, who pleaded guilty in the Perth Court of Petty Sessions last week to unlicensed car dealing and was fined $1,500 with $15,700 in penalties and $300 in costs, had begun before the inspectorate was formed.
However, Motor Trades Association executive director Peter Fitzpatrick said Mr Willoughby had been charged under the old act and not with the new, stiffer penalties, which were introduced in September.
The old penalty called for a fine of up to $3,000 plus $100 per day.
Under the new penalties Mr Willoughby would have faced a fine of up to $50,000 and penalties of $1,000 a day.
Mr Fitzpatrick said the private investigators the association had employed were already starting to show results.
“The brother in law of one the investigators went out to look at a car he saw advertised on the weekend. When he got to the house the bloke had seven other cars in his yard,” he said.
Mr Fitzpatrick said even car dealers were starting to be stung by badly repaired wrecks that were being sold at auctions around Perth.
“One Kalgoorlie car dealer had a car bought for him at auction down here. The customer brought it back and when they took it to a panel beater they found out that it had been a wreck that had been badly put back together and would have to be written off. That was a $20,000 car,” he said.
“The motor vehicle industry is determined to get rid of these illegal car dealers.”
Mr Fitzpatrick said car dealers were waiting to see results from the much-vaunted inspectorate established by the Department of Consumer and Employment Protection.
Consumer and Employment Protection Minister John Kobelke promised the industry more than 18 months ago that the Government would “get tough on shonky backyard dealers”.
However, that inspectorate had difficulties obtaining car licensing information from the Department of Planning and Infrastructure. It only received access to that information about three months ago.
Besides avoiding many government taxes and charges, it is suspected that some unlicensed car dealers have been involved in ‘rebirthing’, where a stolen car is fitted with the compliance plate of a similar car that has been written off by an insurance company after an accident and re-registered.
