Cartell is delighted to welcome the news that clocking is set to become illegal – at the behest of the Department of Transport.

Cartell’s legal division wrote a Bill which sought to make clocking illegal in 2010 and in December 2012 the Bill passed Stage I in the Oireachtas as a Fine Gael Private Members Bill. Now, it seems, the Minister for Transport has taken note.

According to reports in the Irish Independent, because of anecdotal evidence from consumers and industry experts about clocking, it was decided by the Department of Transport to cross-check the mileage of cars which had already been through the NCT process to establish how common the practice was. Some 59,528 cars – which had undergone a total of 124,501 NCTs – had their mileage cross-checked. Analysis found that 5,824 had lower mileage readings the second time around. “That level suggested there is a problem with it,” a source said.

This suggests 9.8% of the Irish fleet are “clocked” based on the analysis of the Department of Transport. Cartell posted results earlier this year (2013) from a sample in excess of 50,000 which returned a figure of 11%. Therefore we broadly concur with the findings of the Department.

But under new plans, cars will have their mileage cross-referenced with their NCT history every time they go in for the test. The move is aimed at clamping down on clocked cars being sold on the second-hand market, and to improve road safety. And it would become a crime to have your car clocked. At the moment, it is a crime only to sell a clocked car. The idea was touched on in the road safety strategy published by Mr Varadkar last week, but will be fleshed out in the coming months. The aim is to have the system rolled out within around two years, and motorists would be able to check mileage history.

John P Byrne, Legal Manager, Cartell.ie says: “We’re delighted with this breakthrough. It appears the current Government is listening to us. The last administration showed no interest whatsoever and told us the matter was under the control of the National Consumer Agency. We have always argued this problem is much too big for any agency to deal with. Only legislation aimed four-square at the problem will have any impact. We concur with the findings of the Department of Transport when it estimates that 10% of the fleet in Ireland is “clocked”. This is a good day for those of us who want to stamp this problem out.”