Clause 11 - Offence of giving false particulars on sale for salvage
Vehicles (Crime) Bill
8:30 pm
Mr Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston, Labour)
I rise to clarify a point for the record. Clause 11 sets out a specific offence and, to avoid ambiguity in the minds of police officers and others concerned with offences that might result in a car being wrecked, I want my hon. Friend the Minister of State to confirm that the clause does not mean that a person who sells a wrecked motor car to a salvage operator cannot be charged with other offences. In such circumstances, a charge of, for example, misleading the police in the course of their inquiries and other charges might be appropriate. I have dealt with many cases in which vehicles have been illegitimately disposed of to disguise evidence when people have been involved in crashes that caused death or serious injury, and it is worth asking my hon. Friend to put on the record the fact that the provision does not preclude other offences relating to vehicles.