Odometer manipulation in motor vehicles: revision of the EU legal framework (debate)
Jill Seymour (EFDD). – Mr President, from time to time there are problems which need cross—border solutions and the issue of odometer tampering is one of those times. If 30% of cars sold across borders in the European market are having their odometers tampered with, then we are dealing with a massive problem costing innocent citizens billions of euros.
Clearly this cannot continue and people must be protected from the criminal activities of a few unscrupulous crooks. A database containing the mileage details of every vehicle would be helpful, but how would this be maintained and checked for accuracy? Where would the mileage details come from, and who would be inputting that data? It is all very well having more and more data kept on our citizens, but criminals don’t care. Our citizens do need strong and effective enforcement of existing laws designed to tackle this issue. Make this a priority and make the penalties far more severe. Anyone found deliberately tampering with vehicle odometers for financial gain should face lengthy prison sentences and hefty fines.
(The speaker refused to take a blue-card question under Rule 162(8))