Thread: Defender 2012 Stolen, rebirthed, rego'd, Gov dept not interested

We had a very nice Ford Escort stolen in the early 80's & after a couple of weeks the answer from the police to our follow up was, " oh we don't investigate cars under $5k value" - it was worth $4800 !!
I recall a newspaper article not long after about a criminal syndicate with a factory of 45 stolen cars in Moorabbin busted - all due to a young bloke chasing down his stolen Toyota FJ45..

Originally Posted by DeeJay

a criminal syndicate with a factory of 45 stolen cars in Moorabbin busted - all due to a young bloke chasing down his stolen Toyota FJ45..

That's because he had the passion to get his vehicle back.
Clearly I was naive to believe that Police are more than just a 9 - 5 job.

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

That's because he had the passion to get his vehicle back.
Clearly I was naive to believe that Police are more than just a 9 - 5 job.

Department Of Transport may be more interested. Your customer can’t be over enthused after hearing what you found either.

So it sounds like, if you do the crime = no worries mate!

Very sad, I'd be ****ed if someone stole my Defender and got away with it.

NSW police must suck. Maybe thats a NSW thing that everything they do is only in halves

Originally Posted by karlz

NSW police must suck. Maybe thats a NSW thing that everything they do is only in halves

Er,no,same happens here.
A mate of mine had a Falcon wagon stolen,and the authorities did stuff all.

Six months later,after a lot of effort he found the vehicle in a dealers yard,then the Police did something.

If he hadnt done all the work,the vehicle would still be 'missing'

A timely warning in a COVID world where inspecting a vehicle is a practical limitation in many instances.

if i was the owner and you laid that out for me, i wouldn't be keen for the police or Dept of transport to investigate it. Risk of losing a very expensive vehicle with little or no recourse for recovery against the seller. You would need to prove that the seller knew or ought to have known of the fraud. The owner will have to bear the costs of factual investigations, commencing legal proceedings etc. If the seller is an individual, recovery of a judgment debt is often a practical reality. if it was a dealership at least there is a business to sue and if the business wants to be a going concern will likely pay the judgment debt rather than go into liquidation.

The alternative is to live with a dirty secret and invoke caveat emptor if you sold the vehicle.

Tough situation to be in.

Reckon I have come across something similar.

Just found a 2004 D2a V8 HSE on Gumtree. Blue with leather trim.
"Dealer" ad, fuzzy pics.....
Ran a check on the rego, and all seemed ok.

Asked for the vin, then ran those numbers.

Comes up as a 2003, Bonatti Grey, cloth trim.

Mentioned it to the seller, ad still up, but selllers name has changed.

On the one hand, it's regoed and in the system.
On the other hand, you don't really know what you have.

Just to update this thread....

*I passed all the info onto the owner and also told him I had taken the info to the Police as I really didnt know where I stood in all this.
*I told him what the Police has told me and he asked what should he do about it.

*I had been thinking about all this for quite some time and decided...
*I spoke to the owner and said well we aren't the Police, we are also not "Gov Dept of inspections", or "approved" Gov bodies that obviously go through very rigorous standards, so I will prep it for roadworthy as I normally would do.
*I also said to the owner if we push this and they go to court (whom ever they are) will likely take their lawyer to court and get off with a good behavior bond or something similar.


So mechanically issues where:
*leaking steering box, did the seal, changed driveline fluids, pressure washed under side and engine bay clean.
*NO BOLTS holding the roof on except zip ties (I **** you not) head lining was teck screwed under the plastic caps, bolted everything back how it should be.
*NO BOLTS holding front guards, radiator support panel, plastic grill, a/c condenser, all of them were zip tied in place. bolted it all back together.
*NO BOLTS / fixings holding the dash. again replaced all the missing bolts and screws.
*Cleaned up front chassis all that light corrosion and coated in chassis black, mounted a steering guard and bullbar.
*Replaced the cheap nasty racer boy seats (that had 2 bolts attached to a alloy strip teck screwed to the under side of the seat) with 2 new Defender seats.
*I also noted that it was a mix of atleast 3 vehicles.

*The end result was a Defender prepped for a roadworthy inspection as how I would prep any vehicle that comes to me.
*So now it's been inspected and has a W.A rego and as far as I'm concerned its a legit roadworthy vehicle.

After all what would a dumb mechanic know when compared to far more knowledgeable Gov Depts.
DONT buy sight unseen especially from NSW which is the stolen rebirth capitol of Aust.

P.S on a side note, if you sat there and worked out or at least estimated the cost of each cut, as in for stripping it, likely putting it in a container with a pile of other parts, shipping it, storing it, put it vaguely back together, slipping it past a NSW inspection, another bit for the car yard etc etc. it sold for $47K I reckon after all said and done they (whom ever they are) prolly made maybe 20K on it. You could make more money doing legit work, so why would you bother? (apart from it being illegal right)