MEP Vlad Gheorghe: odometer tampering to be considered criminal offenses in all EU member states.
Odometer fraud is said to affect between 5% and 12% of used cars in national sales and between 30% and 50% of cross-border sales. That’s why MEP Vlad Gheorghe and his colleagues from Renew Europe are demanding that odometer tampering to be considered a criminal offense in all the Member States.
In Romania, second hand cars market is significant. But almost half of the used cars bought from other countries by Romanians has a fraud odometer.
Vlad Gheorghe demands to European Commission to change the Community legislation in order to protect European citizens, including Romanians, from this crime that put their lives at risk.
”We can use the most developed technical and digital solutions to assure the safety of traffic on public roads. In 2019, almost 23.000 Europeans died, while 135.000 persons were badly injured in traffic accidents in all Member States.
Unfortunately, Romania has the highest level of mortality on roads. Is our duty to find solutions to change this statistics that are equivalent to awful tragedies for so many families.
The proposed measures have the purpose to reduce the number of deaths. We cannot tolerate odometer fraud when it is obvious that this actions are putting the citizens lives at risk. Not to take into consideration the financial loss, more precisely the unanticipated maintenance expenses”, explained Vlad Gheorghe.
Proposed measures
MEP Gheorghe introduced several amendments for increasing the safety on public roads in all Member States, including Romania. Among them, Gheorghe requested that all the Member States to register mandatory odometer readings from each inspection, service, maintenance operation and major repair carried out, starting with the vehicle’s first registration.
Furthermore, the MEP Gheorghe calls for a requirement for Member States to create legal, technical and operational barriers in order to make odometer manipulations impossible. The solution proposed: a consistent database of mileage data collection for second-hand cars, mutually recognized and exchanged between the Member States.
Another request made by Vlad Gheorghe: digital registration of vehicles, without any paper printed documents. This measure will help stopping fraud by forging documents.
The amendments were written by Vlad Gheorghe, designated to be the shadow rapporteur by the Renew Europe. The amendments have been adopted in the Committee on Transport and Tourism. The proposed measures are going to be voted in a Plenary meeting in the next weeks.
