The VIN behind the windscreen is the way in for gangs to steal your car. (1) They can write down the VIN. (2) They can write down the registration, the make, model and colour. (3) They then pretend to be a car parking company and they send off to DVLA for the car owners details claiming that he owes them a parking fine. Once a dossier has been built up the gang relays all the information to accomplices overseas. The "chauffeur" who has "lost the keys" gets a duplicate set made and these are then airmailed to the gang in London. The car is then stolen. The chances of this happening to a twenty year old Peugeot 405 are infinitesimally small but if one owns a £50,000 plus car the risks are very real. Allegedly the DVLA has tightened up the rules on giving out information but all the gang needs is a mate who works for a genuine car parking company. A letter left inside the car will also give away the owners name and address. Take care!

This is the daftest idea that I have heard of in ages. For example the law requiring one to produce ones log book (V5) and driving licence when having number plates made, only applies in England and Wales. (Not Scotland, Ireland or the IOM) All that cheats and rogues need to do is note down the registration numbers of vehicles that are the same make, model and colour as their own and clone it. Of course they won't know whether the one that they are planning to clone is actually legitimate. In the 1970s I heard third hand about a rough traveller type of character who allegedly never ever paid for tax, insurance or MOTs. Allegedly he would only buy cars that they made millions and millions of, red Ford Escorts for example. Allegedly he would use the other persons number for about a month and then migrate to another number. As to the tax disc or the absence of it, presumably the other person would get the fine for "failing to display". Most unsavoury. I fear that a whole can of worms is about to be opened and what about foreign travel? I really cannot see the French or the Spanish taking kindly to Englishmen who drive without a tax disc as basically the tax disc is proof that the vehicle is insured. Perhaps the DVLA will now be telling the hard pressed motorist to get an insurance vignette from his insurers? If so it will just be a case of replacing one type of disc with another! SNAFU!

Please could someone advise me about NOTIONAL INCOME? The scenario is that I worked for several firms in the past. One firm that I worked for for thirteen years gave me a "frozen pension". I then worked abroad but came back to the UK after about a year. Inundated with bills I cashed-in the frozen pension (which I didn't really understand thinking the value of it would erode with time) and received about £1600. I assumed that this would be the end of story. Unfortunately when I reached the age of sixty a "residual amount" of about £2000 was paid to me. I am 99% certain that this was my Widows Pension contributions. THIS WAS NOT MY PENSION but the DWP say that it is and its opened-up a whole can of worms. Apart from short term jobs I worked for another firm for eleven years. I loathed the job, the management and the hours and eventually told them where to stuff their job. I think I was blacklisted (the management were Freemasons) because I could never get another job again. I had to survive on JSA. At age sixty I became entitled to Early Retirement and signed to accept the increased payment and not needing to look for work. I did not know how to claim the pension from that execrable firm and quite frankly I did not really want their money as I felt it to be tainted dirty money which I did not really wish to accept. At the age of 65 I became entitled to the Old Age Pension. This was extremely stressful as several government departments started nagging and arguing about who was going to be paying my pension. It was patently obvious that they would have vastly preferred for me to have pegged-it and got into my coffin. The firms pension which was only based on eightieths for each year of service was mentioned and I was told that I HAD to claim it. The reason for all this nagging soon became apparent - THEY WANTED MY MONEY! Anyhow with owing several thousands on credit cards it seemed a good idea to claim the pension. I was paid arrears for the six unclaimed years and received a pay slip "Pay this month £31,000 Tax this month £12,500. Already the £31K was down to £18.5K! They then calculated Notional Income of about £17K and of course I then had to pay Council Tax, £750 to the end of the Council Tax year. Its quite amazing how the £31K can dwindle to seven hundred and fifty quid but that seems to be how the system works. Of course now that Pension Credits have been cancelled there will be no free NHS dentistry or spectacles and no free court fees for suing cheats who have swindled me on eBay. This country is fast becoming like Zimbabwe as the "Notional Income" and hence notional debt is basically a tissue of lies based on false accounting. They are now docking forty pounds per week from my Old Age Pension in order to pay-off this notional debt. No doubt they want this money to send to Bongo-Bongo land.

Could the car be reverse engineered to accept a RELIABLE engine? This has been done in the past with the NSU Ro80. Nowadays the problem is of course emissions and a classical engine with a "jerk pump" might not pass. Perkins Diesels used to claim that they could offer diesel engines to reverse-engineer just about anything and in the past there was a Perkins conversion for the rather thirsty Volvo 145 and 245. Having just said that I overhauled the engine on my Land Rover 300TDi that had previously been owned by morons. It had overheated badly, there was head gasket trouble and the pistons all had valve dents in them resulting from some clown fitting a new timing belt incorrectly. I refurbished the car with a new radiator, new cylinder head, new pistons and a new timing belt. At the MOT the tester was astonished with the battered trucks first time pass on emissions. Since then the truck has done Cornwall to Peterhead and return using about a cupful of engine oil. The only problem with the 300TDi is that it allegedly will not pass the Euro4 emissions regulations. Most engine back-plates and bell-housings are to Society of Automotive Engineers pattern (SAE 6 is very common on small industrial engines) I think someone needs to look into the possibility of doing some reverse engineering as at present people are just throwing good money after bad. It is possible to obtain emergency shut-down devices for engines. The normal arrangement is for a disc to move and shut off the air intake if the air-flow becomes ridiculous. With these devices known as a "Chalwyn Valve" engines that are running away as a result of burning their own lubricating oil can be stopped. Above all avoid the places where they wear a tie and address you as "Sir" as this is the preamble to ripping you off!

£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££ If one studies the Internet (Google Renault 2.2dci problems) you will see that these engines are very troublesome. OK for their cubic capacity they are some of the most powerful diesels in the world but just look at the longevity (or rather the lack of it!) One thing that I would say is that engines get used to a particular brand of oil. It is after all a very important part of the engine. At this point I must add that at the moment I am running a stop-gap car, a 21 year old Peugeot 405D estate. Shell Helix was used at its first oil change and has been used ever since as IMHO changing the oil to a different type can spell disaster. A heavy haulage firm in this area discovered this and it cost the firms owner a fortune. Once he went back to the oil that the engines had got used to, the problems ceased. As to the Pug after 170,000 the engine runs like new and the performance is more than adequate with a top speed that cannot be mentioned here. As to engines failing, a few years ago a German car became known as the rod-bender and head-buster. Absolutely terrible and AFAIK the rods were not up to the heavy turbo boost. The recall fix was kept secret of course but it was most likely stronger con-rods. Perhaps a Class Action could be started over the 2.2 DCi engine. I am faintly interested because a fairly impecunious friend bought a used Renault Laguna 2.2 dci The first problem was the battery going flat when the car was not used. The main problem is that after going on a long run the car has broken down big time "All the warning lights came on, it revved-up and then a red light came on and it won't start up any more.":-x

SO TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CHECK FOR PLAY IN THE STEERING AT FULL LOCK when a car has worm and peg steering? CMON TELL ME.

Maybe one could have a long list of pre-booked MOTs all along the route? LOL! Lighten up you sound a bit like the miserable ginger haired MOT Tester around here (the one that nobody likes). He failed a friends BMW for "excessive play in the steering" but he tested for play at full lock and the car had a steering box! Oh well they do have to get plenty of failures otherwise VOSA will come knocking! When I checked it there was no play in the steering and he's lucky that Doug didn't appeal (trouble is that the car is then out of action for a month so nobody ever appeals) When Doug went back he said "You will check it with the wheels straight ahead won't you?" and the bloke went nearly as red as a traffic light! Another bad tester around here has been sacked. He used to measure the letter spacing on factory made number plates to make sure it was all correct and in Charles Wright script! That bloke basically owes me £120 as he failed my "Range Rover Vogue EFi" on "Leaking master cylinder brakes creeping." I told him that he was testing it wrong because the car had been converted to DIESEL and he was testing it as a petrol. What was happening was that the pedal was dipping slightly as the vacuum pump pulled a harder and harder vacuum and was adamant that it was faulty. With a brand new master cylinder it was exactly the same. The difference is that with a 3.5 litre petrol engine the engine is the vacuum pump and the vacuum that is depleted by using the brake gets replenished in a fraction of a second. The other gaffe that the bloke made was in using a two wheel brake tester on a vehicle with permanent 4WD. He was totally out of his depth. Such people cost the punters a lot of money. In one of my careers I maintained the machine tools at British Leyland so I do know what I'm on about.

Does this mean that if a person buys a car near Loch Lomond with no MOT he can drive it to an MOT station nearest his home in Cornwall? Alternatively if the vehicle fails its MOT in Scotland would driving it home (to where it is going to be repaired) count as driving it to a place of repair? It seems to be a grey area and it would be very useful to know all the loopholes. In the case of trailers which have just been purchased, English case law has shown that an EMPTY trailer which has just been purchased and is being taken home is NOT BEING USED! (a person had a wheel fall off his trailer and the police prosecuted the person but lost!) We can't all have trade plates and vehicle transporter lorries as they cost too much!

Re visits from clampers. It really all depends whether you have neighbours from hell who are constantly spying on you and phoning up the authorities at every opportunity. You must know the type by now, they are the jealous bastards who get annoyed when you save money by replacing your own brake-pads. What they would prefer you to do is go to the garage and pay through the nose the same as they do. They are known to make cat-calls about "lowering the tone of the neighbourhood" to all and sundry. How do I know? Simple, I said to one council official "You know I've got neighbours from hell don't you?" "Oh yes" the person said "they've been phoning the police, the environment agency, the council, everybody in fact - but I can't do anything about it."

What is a Public Road or a public place varies according to the law that is being applied. For example I heard about a young man who worked in Dorset as a transmitter technician for the BBC. On his 21st birthday he went to the pub meaning to have a couple of drinks. His friends met up with him and bought him lots more. In the end he was very drunk. As he did not want his landlady to see him drunk he decided to sleep in his estate car which was in the pubs car park at the rear. Later the police arrived and the man was charged with being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle. (he should have given the keys to somebody else or posted them back to himself) Allegedly the local rag got hold of the story and splattered the story all over the front page. The headline was "BBC Engineer Fined and Banned For Drunk Driving". In this case although the car was on private land it was land that Joe Public had access to without paying an entry fee so for this particular law it was in effect a public road. If on the other hand the man had obtained permission to store an untaxed car there the land would be classed as private land for the purpose of SORN. "In an English Court you don't get Justice, you get Law" - this saying is attributed to the late Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls (nothing to do with Rolls-Royce cars but the highest judge in the land)

The clamping contractors argument seemed to be that although some of the cars (trade-ins?) were in the hands of the motor trade, they motor trade had not yet done the paperwork to SORN them. The motor trade stated that because these cars were for sale and could be sold at any time SORNing and sending the tax disc and log book to DVLA would hinder their business. It was a horrible can of worms with too many Jobsworths being a pain.

I thought so but they insisted that Pension Credit was paid in advance (a lie?) and the State Pension was paid in arrears. Now as Pension Credit is really just a polite form of dole money the corollary has to be "Is dole money paid in advance?" Er I don't think so, so someone is being "economical with the truth". The shortfall of almost £120 caused me to go overdrawn when the Direct Debit for the car insurance hit so that's a £5 bank charge for a start and its not helping with my credit rating either. With the bank charge it works out at £23 a week to live on for that week so I'm not a happy bunny.

Watch out for when you reach the age of 65. By some false accounting they deem that you are receiving the State Pension the instant one becomes 65. In a way they are correct but no State Pension money is paid out until a week later! If one has been put on the scrapheap and has been receiving Pension Credits ones 65th birthday present is to be given £28 to live on for a week! (Pension Credit is instantly reduced by the same amount as the State Pension which does not arrive until a week later) The fob-off is "It'll all sort itself out in the end" but it won't, one will be short by the amount of a weeks State Pension for ever more. Someone I know is fast approaching his 65th and it will be interesting to see if he gets scammed the same way.

This SORN lark is a dreadful [problem] as last year they were clamping cars that were for sale at car dealers in Exeter and these cars were on private land and in the hands of the motor trade hence exempt from the SORN scheme. They also clamped a limo that had been driven to the garage without tax for its pre-arranged annual MOT. It is perfectly legal to drive without tax if one is travelling to a pre-arranged MOT but for the journey home I usually tax the car using a mobile phone before I leave the test centre. As to the land, I am not a lawyer but I do know that there are lots of bits of unconveyed land and unclaimed land within the UK. It is quite possible that where you parked your bike was land abandoned by the builders of the house. The state does bend the rules though because I know a man who was breathalysed on a private farm road. The police took the attitude that as the public can go up the road without paying it was a public road! As to the Exeter car dealers, the ones who had trade plates were able to get their seized vehicles returned but such heavy handed Gestapo like behaviour is what one might expect in Zimbabwe. By the way my reason for searching was to find out the difference between highway and carriageway as in Cornwall people are constantly trying to claim the grass verges by placing white painted stones there. They seem to think that they can grab all the land that doesn't have tarmac on it!

Proof positive that the term "British Justice" is an oxymoron but as the late Lord Denning once said "In British courts you don't get justice you get Law"