We hope that you are all aware of  “Operation Swallow” as detailed in Wednesday’s Irish Times article. We have had further updates from Finbar Garland, head of the SMVU.

With regard to the Operation we have in place at the moment ‘Op Swallow’ mentioned in the article.

Some of the stolen vehicles I speak about have been recovered in the possession of Motor Dealers. Thieves have actually traded them in to garages who then sell them on unaware they are ringers to innocent victims again.

Most of the vehicles we are recovering are stolen IRISH, plated up with false UK details supported by either forged or duplicate V5’s, registered with Revenue and given legitimate Irish plates and documents and sold to Motor Dealers.

Finbar went on to give some advice on how to spot these dodgy vehicles.

The cars are very professionally done and can fool most people. However If the car is plugged into the ECU (brain of the car) it should show up the original VIN number and should contradict the false stamped in VIN number.

In some cases the engine number has not been altered and again will not correspond with the registration documents.

Things to look out for:

• Car has recently been imported from GB or N.Ireland.
• Duplicate registration documents
• Seller is NOT the registered owner according to Document