THE PRACTICE OF ‘clocking’ a car is soon to be banned in Ireland, if an amendment to the Road Traffic (No 2) Bill 2013 is accepted.

Fine Gael TD for Kildare North, Anthony Lawlor, has said that he is very pleased that his proposal to make it an offence to clock a car is being adopted by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar TD, through an amendment to the bill.

The amendment to the bill, which is due to be tabled this week in the Dáil, will make it an offence to interfere with the odometer of a vehicle.

Lawlor initially introduced this through a Private Members Bill  in December 2012. He said that the need to deal with the practice of clocking cars was initially brought to his attention by Cartell.ie, a Kildare based company which provides vehicle history to consumers and dealers.

He said that the company “made me aware of the dangers of clocked cars, as they give a false sense of security to motorists in terms of the quality of their vehicle and hoodwink consumers into buying altered goods”.

The amendment being introduced at Report Stage by the Minister will make it an offence for someone to interfere with the odometer, or procure someone to do so, and if found guilty will face a fine of up to €5,000 or up to three months in jail. This is a practical change to the law which will make our roads safer and ensure quality goods are being sold in all motor dealerships.

Minister Varadkar noted in November of last year that there was a draft EU Regulation on periodic roadworthiness tests for vehicles being discussed by both the Council and the Parliament at the time.

“The present text provides that each Member State will take the necessary measures to ensure that manipulating an odometer will be punishable by effective and proportionate penalties,” he said.

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