Not really a question as such but somthing to mull over.

Last October I went to look at an Ford Escort XR3 which I found for sale in Classic car weekly.

To cut a long story short I was put off from the sale because the owner was very reluctant to show me the V5 doccument and I noticed that the reg number etched into the windows did not match that of the car.

When I checked the reg via my text check It came back as having a VIC marker put in place which hadnt been removed, which, to those who dont know is a trick some people pull to swap the identity of a stolen car with a previously written off one. Basically the reg from a written off car is put onto a stolen one, which is then MOT'd and deemed as having been repaired to a good enough standard, it is then supposed to go to VOSA to have the VIC (Vehicle Identification Check) marker removed, to verify that it is the origional written off car, but there is very little to enforce this.

At the time I just ignored it, but since then I have noticed the very same car appear in classic car weekly and Ebay several times and each time with a different owner. It appeared eople were buying the car, realising something was wrong and then trying to flog it off again quickly.

So, having noticed it in this weeks CCW with, yet again, another new owner I decided to flag it up. I called crimestoppers at first and they told me to call the police, so I called the local police station to where the car now is (Whitefield near Manchester) and they could not have been less interested, had a very mocking tone the whole time he spoke to me, took (or prentended to) a few basic details then went.

Im not the sort of person that calls the police regually over the slightest thing, a missing snowman or noise from next door, ifact I think that was the 2nd time I'd called them in my entire life! But should a potentially stolen car not be of interest to them??