Backyard car dealers targeted
THE Western Australian Government has launched another tilt at unlicensed car dealers although the motor industry, while supportive, says the approach is only scratching the surface.
Neither the Government nor the industry is prepared to put a figure on how large the unlicensed car dealing problem is but both concede that it is significant.
The Government push, led by Consumer Services director Dave Hillyard, is linked into State and Federal agencies because, besides the safety and quality problems posed by backyard car dealers buying wrecks and putting them back on the road after conducting substandard repairs, there are also issues of tax evasion and, in some cases, benefit fraud.
The Department of Consumer and Employment Protection’s motor vehicle branch has been beefed up to seven investigators – up from just one investigator five years ago. In the past two years its investigations have resulted in three successful prosecutions.
Mr Hillyard said investigations were under way into 70 new cases, one matter was due to go before the court in "a matter of weeks" and another was before the department’s legal people.
He said information gleaned from investigations into unlicensed car dealers was being passed on to agencies such as the Australian Tax Office.
Despite the work Mr Hillyard’s team is doing, legitimate car dealers say there is a much bigger problem out there.
Industry members have funded the Motor Trades Association’s hiring of private investigation firm Meridian to help gather evidence on illegal dealers.
Motor Trades Association executive director Peter Fitzpatrick said unlicensed car dealing should be a WA Police Service matter.
Indeed, unlicensed car dealing was a police matter until the service undertook its Delta program in the mid 1990s and did away with the squad that handled the problem.
"I fear someone will die if this [illegal car dealing] is not stopped," Mr Fitzpatrick said.
"There are young kids buying these cars that, on the surface, look fine but underneath the repair has not been done to any sort of standard."
Mr Fitzpatrick said the problem of unlicensed car dealing was entrenched.
"People have admitted to me that they’ve been operating like this [without a licence] for 10 years," he said.
The Motor Trades Association’s private investigations have provided some useful information to the department’s pursuit of illegal car dealers.
Mr Fitzpatrick said information provided by the association had contributed to at least two prosecutions.
For his part, Mr Hillyard said the association’s information had initially provided useful background but little else. He said following discussions the association had refined its investigation methods and was now providing much more useful information.
