Thousands of cars on Garda stolen vehicle records could have been destroyed by local authorities without Garda knowledge, The Irish Times has learned.
Under the Waste Management Act, 1996, local authorities have the power to remove abandoned and burnt-out cars from the roads and dispose of them. However, due to a loophole in the legislation they are under no obligation to give details of these cars to the Garda or to inform the last known owners.
Gardaí have confirmed that many of the vehicles they are searching for, because they have been reported stolen by their owners, may already have been removed from the roads and destroyed by local councils.
An average of 13,000 vehicles are reported stolen each year. Of these around 2,000 are never recovered, according to Det Sgt Finbarr Garland of the Garda Stolen Vehicles Unit.
"It could be the case that many of the vehicles we have recorded as stolen have been recovered by the council, but if they're then burnt, we've no way of taking them off the list."
In an ideal situation, gardaí would be informed of vehicles collected by local authorities before they were crushed but even an annual list of cars destroyed would be useful, he said.
"At least if we could take them off the list, it would be some help to us and to the insurance people as well."
Although local authorities are under no statutory obligation to give details of the cars they destroy, council officials occasionally approach gardaí to check if particular vehicles have been stolen. However, Det Sgt Garland said this was not common practice.
"I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of cars I've heard about from the council this year, but there's nothing we can do, we're relying on them to give us what lists they have."
In a once-off collaboration with South Dublin County Council in 1998, gardaí viewed a number of burnt-out cars that had been recovered by the council in the Dublin mountains. Some 70 per cent of these were on the stolen cars list, Det Sgt Garland said.
In the Dublin City Council area alone, between 2,800 and 3,000 cars are removed from the roads each year. The council does have a facility to store vehicles but only 12 were this year considered of sufficient value not to be destroyed, an official said.
Some 40 per cent of abandoned cars are taken by the council with the owners' consent for a removal fee of €125. Of the remaining 60 per cent 28 per cent are burnt-out when found and are automatically crushed.
In the remaining 32 per cent of cases, the damage to the car is considered to exceed its value. The council can issue litter fines to people who abandon cars and it does so in about 400 cases a year. "We have no interest in penalising people who have already been the victims of crime so in these cases we will often contact the gardaí to make sure the cars were not stolen, before we issue a fine," the official said.
