CDP Supports Move to Crack Down on Vehicle Theft
The Rev Fred Nile MLC, leader of the Christian Democratic Party, has given strong support to a Bill before the NSW Upper House that seeks to crack down on vehicle theft and ‘rebirthing’.
“The Christian Democratic Party supports the Crimes Amendment (Organised Car and Boat Theft) Bill. This important bill highlights the necessity for governments to deal with organised crime as it becomes more sophisticated in cities such as Sydney, Los Angeles, New York and so on, and for legislation to combat such crime. The bill amends the Crimes Act 1900 to create new offences that target organised motor vehicle crime. The offence of facilitating an organised car or boat rebirthing activity carries up to 14 years imprisonment, and extends the existing offences relating to the theft of motor vehicles to cover also the theft of boats. Sydney has many waterways and many thousands of pleasure craft, so it is important that the legislation be widened to cover boats. I commend the Government for this initiative”, Rev Nile stated.
”Police now have the power to crack down on car and boat rebirthing. Indeed, it is estimated that rebirthing activities cost New South Wales taxpayers $100 million annually. In 2005 approximately 8,600 stolen cars were suspected of being used for those purposes, targets mainly being the higher priced end of market and luxury cars. Rebirthing covers a range of illegal activities, which all have one thing in common: to allow a stolen vehicle or a vehicle with stolen parts to be passed off and registered as a legitimate vehicle. Organised car thieves and their accomplices perform a wide range of activities to rebirth vehicles.
One example is where a rebirthing syndicate steals a car, strips parts from the car and then dumps the chassis. The police recover the chassis and its details are removed from the stolen car list, after checking the chassis number. The insurance company writes off the chassis and sells it at auction. The thieves buy back the chassis on the open market at auction, making them the lawful owners of the car. They then replace the parts they had previously stripped from the chassis, re-register and sell the car, pretending they had innocently bought the chassis and legitimately fixed it up with bought spare parts. They may even produce forged receipts for the spare parts stripped from the stolen car. That is one ingenious way in which criminal syndicates steal motor vehicles and boats, and manipulate registered identities so they can be re-registered and sold to unsuspecting buyers.
The bill creates four offences relating to the misuse of unique vehicle identifiers such as markings, letters and numbers that allow a car or part to be identified. It is an offence to dishonestly interfere with a unique vehicle identifier, to dishonestly make a unique or purported unique vehicle identifier, to possess a motor vehicle or part with intent to dishonestly alter a unique vehicle identifier and to knowingly induce another person to accept a false unique vehicle identifier as a genuine identifier. Each of these offences carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment. Another important aspect relates to organised crime figures who often separate the different aspects of the crime into compartments.
For example, a person who makes a false vehicle identification plate may have no involvement in the re-registration process and may not even know the people who present the car for fraudulent re-registration. New section 154G (5) makes it clear that it does not matter whether the activity is carried out under the direction of any particular person or whether the same person is always involved in the rebirthing. It does not even matter that the accused did not know any of the other participants in the rebirthing ring. If that person has knowingly participated in a car or boat rebirthing activity also knowing that the activity, as a whole, is carried out on an organised basis, the person is guilty of the offence created by new section 154G and is liable to 14 years imprisonment. That provision puts the noose around the neck of each individual involved in a rebirthing racket. We support the bill”, Rev Nile said.