Convictions in 7.5 million mile car clocking conspiracy case

Fleet News (27 February) reports on the convictions of five individuals for conspiracy to commit fraud, arising out clocking activities that wiped an astonishing 7.5 million miles off the mileage of a hundred cars in the possession of the chauffeur services company they worked for. Warrington Borough Council and Halton Borough Council trading standards carried out a three-year investigation before bringing the prosecutions (during which the two boroughs' joint trading standards team was split into two). The defendants were found guilty after a six-week jury trial at Chester Crown Court: two other defendants were acquitted.



'via Blog this'

Repair data investigation

The Information Commissioner's Office has been called in by crash repair chain NARS to investigate illegal access to personal data, including estimates for car repairs. The ICO is concerned that personal information was traded unlawfully, and that nuisance phone calls might have been the result.
The ICO's experience is that unscrupulous people access data about car accidents to sell on to marketing firms, according to Mike Shaw, enforcement manager, quoted in Motor Trader.
The ICO has carried out a search at a property in east London as part of the investigation. Motor Trader reports that the person of interest is not a current employee of NARS.
While it is not illegal to sell data such as lists of prospective customers, the data must have been obtained lawfully in the first place and the person selling it on must have the right to do so. The Data Protection Act 1998 contains detailed provisions to protect individuals' personal data, and section 55 makes it an offence to obtain or access personal data unlawfully.
(Motor Trader report 22 February 2017 http://www.motortrader.com/motor-trader-news/automotive-news/information-tsar-probes-repair-estimates-data-breach-24-02-2017?eea=SDdUT1B0TGNYbW5TV1drQ3grdVp0M3l3WXJWTHgxT01LaERTKzd1Tm5ZUT0=&n_hash=38&utm_source=eshot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MT-MT-1947DailyNewsletter)

Commissioner urges Member States to speed up "Dieselgate" investigations

The industry commissioner, saying that VW is not the only manufacturer to flout testing rules, has called on Member States to speed up their investigations into the matter. Renault and Fiat have been strenuously denying that they have been involved in any emissions wrongdoing in France and the US respectively.

Independent tests in France had shown that NOx emissions were higher in real-world driving than in tests. Following the initial investigation which ended in November, the matter has been taken up by the public prosecutor in Paris. The Paris prosecutor has jurisdiction throughout the country in consumer matters.

In the US, the EPA has issued a notice of violation against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. The notice accuses FCA of failing to notify the EPA that one of its diesel engines ran software that affected NOx emissions. The software is not illegal but should have been disclosed.

German government allows testing of autonomous cars

The German government has approved a draft law which will allow autonomous cars to be tested on German roads.

Government to propose legislation on bills of sale

The government (in the person of treasury minister Simon Kirby) has announced today that it will introduce legislation based on the Law Commission's report on bills of sale, publication of which we reported last September. The minister's announcement is quite an extensive statement of the situation.