I've seen plenty of people on Ebay selling, in some cases, genuine dealer stamps which previously belonged to dealerships which have closed down. Some of these have come from Main Dealers. Plus, of course, fake stamps which are sold just so that you can make-up a service history for a particular vehicle.

Anyone selling fake dealer stamps should go to prison as this character has done so.

Also, there are plenty of blank manufacturers Service Record Books for sale, too, making it incredibly easy for an unscrupulous seller to produce a false service history.

I think the whole business of Car Service Histories needs to be tightened up. Replacement manufacturers Service Record Books should be almost impossible to obtain and, even in that case, only available from a main dealer for that particular manufacturer on production of a V5/C at the very least.

Dealer stamps for any dealership should be destroyed by someone like their accountant or other appointed administrator with this person being held personally responsible if this isn't carried out.

As I say, the whole Car Service History Record business needs urgently tightening-up.

I myself would never accept just a Service Book on it's own as adequate proof of Service History. I would always require the accompanying receipts for the services, receipts for any other work which has been carried out on the vehicle, and past MOT certificates.

With every service stamp in the book should be an invoice from the dealer in question. If that's not with the car, walk away.

The trouble with that is that you'll be walking away from an awful lot of cars before finding a documented one.

I think the whole business of Car Service Histories needs to be tightened up. Replacement manufacturers Service Record Books should be almost impossible to obtain and, even in that case, only available from a main dealer for that particular manufacturer on production of a V5/C at the very least.

When I bought the brand new Leon on arrival at home I looked at the service book I was horrified to see that a reg number had been crossed out and the reg number of my car written above it.

Rang the garage who said sorry for the mistake but nothing they could do. I said that there was no way I would be accepting a new car with an altered document and they would either be changing it or I would reject the car (this was 2013 - before the CRA 2015 thus might not have worked).

Must have worried them (slightly) since a few days later through the post arrived a new service book with DUPLICATE stamped all over it. Rang them to say that was also not acceptable since as with the book with the altered reg it would make it look like I had forged the service history later in the cars life. They told me there was nothing they could do, Seats rules.

So I rang Seat Customer Services who promptly arranged for the garage to supply a brand new, correctly filled out book and because of the lies told to me by the garage they gave me a voucher (not time limited) for £200. That bought me a set of tyres 3 1/2 years later.

So check all the books before you leave even on an new car. The best time to walk away is before you pay. No books, no buy.

I suspect some used-car dealers bin a car's paperwork anyway, just saying it's got lost.

We have a local trader who has been on his current site since the 70's (I hired cars from him) whose standard practice was to zero the clocks of every car on sale with a disclaimer stating that he could not guarantee the mileage. No idea if he still does it.

The DVLA MOT checker site is good to pick up on things like this, it gives you an idea of average miles between MOTs.

The motivation for selling fake stamps is primarily for clocking cars. The value difference for a car with a few extra stamps once a few years old is virtually nil.

Sadly the days of getting lots of paperwork with cars are coming to an end - a lot of main dealers won't pass it on now due to GDPR regulations so we are seeing less and less of them. Some dealers won't even confirm servicing over the phone now.

On top of that you can't even find out how long the last owner had the car on the V5 (there are other ways to find out) or the last but one keeper's name/address.

As ever though, judge the car before the paperwork. Some of the worst cars out there have the most paperwork.