Rise of the ‘ghost owners’: 18,000 UK vehicles in use without proper records

More than 18,000 vehicles are being used in the UK without proper records of where their owners live, it has emerged, part of what a Labour MP has called an increasing problem of “ghost owners” who cannot be held accountable for their driving.

According to a freedom of information request to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, 18,260 vehicles were listed in its records as being registered to the DVLA’s own address, meaning the owner’s location was not known.

The Labour MP Sarah Coombes, who has campaigned over what she says are excessively lax rules that allow people to easily buy cloned or otherwise untraceable number plates, has called on the agency to take urgent action. The West Bromwich MP was expected to speak in a debate on the DVLA taking place in the Commons on Thursday.

While the agency says many of the vehicles without an address are owned by car traders, and thus not an issue, the British Parking Association, which submitted the FoI request, has argued that the real problem is most likely much greater than suggested by the figures.

It says members have found that anything between 10% and 20% of requests made to the DVLA for ownership data bring no results, in part because of vehicles registered without an address, but also due to associated issues such as cloned plates, which are registered to another car.

Coombes has called for a crackdown on the number of official suppliers of number plates. There are currently more than 34,000 of these, with people able to register with the DVLA as a supplier for a single payment of £40, without any criminal or other background checks.

Last year, an investigation by government advisers found that more than 130 registered number plate suppliers said they were willing to sell cloned plates.

Another increasingly common way to evade driving penalties is so-called ghost plates, which use a reflective coating so they cannot be read by police cameras.

Coombes said: “Failing DVLA systems are allowing dangerous driving and criminality to flourish unchecked on our roads. The UK’s woeful vehicle number plate regulation is leading to ghost and cloned plates being used in everything from car racing to drug dealing and even murders.

“We are also seeing an epidemic of ‘ghost owners’ where a vehicle has no registered keeper – which means speeding, hit and runs and worse are going completely unpunished as the driver cannot be found.

“We are all paying the price for these untraceable drivers through higher car insurance premiums. This failing roads regulation is undermining trust and safety and the DVLA must act urgently to sort this out.”

According to a parliamentary question asked by the MP, the DVLA has not fined a single person in the last five years for failing to update their address with driving records.

The DVLA was contacted for comment.