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STOLEN NCT CERTIFICATES from an armed holdup in 2013 are still in circulation.
Some 850 official certificates were taken during an armed holdup of an NCT centre in Drogheda in October of 2013.
Gardaí told TheJournal.ie that the incident is still part on an ongoing investigation and that no one has yet been brought before the courts in relation to the holdup.
Director of Cartell.ie Jeff Aherne, said, “Understandably, these certificates will look completely authentic, as they were stolen at source, but the numbers on the certificates are not in official circulation.”
The NCT website lists the NCT certificate serial numbers that were stolen and asks people who are buying a second hand vehicle to check the number on the NCT disc.
Aherne added, “It is possible that unscrupulous individuals are offering these stolen certificates for sale and buyers may not be aware that purchase and display of these certificates constitutes an offence.
Conviction for this offence carries five penalty points and Courts may impose a fine of up to €2,000 and/or up to three months’ imprisonment.
“As a buyer of a used vehicle you should be smart – verify all your documents as part of the buying process and that includes verifying the NCT Certificate number.”
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There is no law that says the buyer has to verify the NCT cert. If it’s good enough to get past the policy enforcers at the checkpoint then that’s ok with me.
Let not forget that the NCT employees were caught taking bribes and passing cars a 3 years ago and it probably still goes on.
What day is it glen.i think its wendsday??
How in the name of god is the buyer supposed to verify the NCT certificate, I just bought a second hand car the only thing I looked for was that it hadn’t expired, ironic, stolen when?public informed?
When you’ll test the car you’ll know!However,you could call NCT and ask re your certificate:as above give reg no and good luck.
As a precaution it is wise to go on to the NCT website put in the reg of the car you may be buying to check its validity https://www.ncts.ie/booking_app/Bookings/NCTReminder.aspx?language=english it could save you spending money on a car that is not road worthy!
It’s just a money racket whether it’s done legally or illegally. …
Well tom you have to admit since the nct has come in the standard of car on the roads has gone up dramatically. I’m old enough to remember a time when there were plenty of death traps on the road. You rarely see that now. I’m not saying the system perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it sure is better than it was.
You think the NCT is a money Racket try doing the DOE (think the call it the CVRT or something now)
113euros for the test and all most 50euros for a retest. This has to be done every year.
Got mine done last week and a guy behind me for a test was testing a 141 van. It had done 7500km and still had 2years warranty. It’s total madness and nothing short of a money Racket.
I failed over an enging managment light being on. Had a faulty censor on my diesel pump. All most ,€100 to replace(parts and labour) and €50 to retest. My diesel censor was not putting anybody else on the road in danger was it???
People seem convinced that the NCT is a money racket, despite the fact that the majority of money spent to get a car to pass the test is spent in a garage. In particular, car owners seem to get very angry when their car fails the test having been ‘pre-NCTed’, even though a ‘pre-NCT’ is a service privately offered by garages with no regulation and no link to the NCT itself
Kevin.
I don’t disagree with The NCT or DOE but I just feel it’s gone a bit over the top.
I need a commercial vehicle for work and do on average 5000-8000miles per year. I don’t think you need to test this vehicle every year. Why not test every 50000km or every 3 years whichever comes first. Any car over 10 years old need a NCT every year which again I feel every 3 years would be fine.
I would love to know how many road deaths or serious accidents are caused by vehicle failure or mechanical failure. I am open to correction on this but I recall the AA saying it was less than 0.1%.
Why put so much time and money into vehicle safety when the cause of most accidents is not vehicle malfunction. You can only come to the conclusion that a lot of people are making a lot of money out of this.
Also most people do not go for pre NCTs anymore. Just go and get the test done and repair what failed the test.
The decision on what should be part of the NCT test, or how often cars need to present for test, is not decided by the NCT but rather by the RSA. I know that the argument to make the NCT a mileage-dependent test rather than age-dependent has been going around for a while, and there’s a lot of merit in it, but unfortunately a car’s mileage can be manipulated. If there are people prepared to steal NCT certs, then there would certainly be people prepared to tamper with an odometer.
I wish the numbers going for pre-NCTs was down, but in my experience it isn’t. The numbers of people that pay several hundred euro to garages only to fail their NCT is as high as ever.
I’m sure, Kevin, If a son or daughter or a family member was killed by one of those 0.1%(your figure not mine) your interpretation would change. I’m not saying the system is perfect in any way, but I feel safer on the road because of it. In the uk the mandatory MOT test is done annually on any vehicle after 3years old. So by waiting for a 10 year old car to be tested annually is not a bad thing as especially the older the car is the more likely faults are to arise. Also not everybody drives a commercial as little as you do. commercial vehicles generally have higher mileage, but still if your only doing little mileage that doesn’t stop your van rusting from the inside out. Then taking your second point that vehicle failure is not the major cause of accidents and is small, how would you then feel if they brought in re-taking your car test every 5-10 years? Which in my opinion improve the situation, Or if you have an “at fault” accident you lose your licence for a year like drink driving. These things will come to pass if the death rate on the road in this country does not improve. Then the test fee wouldn’t seem so bad.
Simple fix. Change the cert.
Changing the cert will only work from the date of change on. Anyone with an old cert on their car will still have a valid cert. It would work if the stolen certs haven’t yet been printed, but for any cars driving with a stolen cert at the moment a new cert design won’t make them stand out
They have been changed from the old green one to the new purple ones..
I think the point is if you see the cert on the car you assume that it works but it could be a heap of shit.
Nc bloody t..
Tell us all what you failed on.
Probably that vital safety measure of having a reg plate with the county written “as Gaeilge” in tiny writing.
My cert doesn’t expire till 2019
Just to help people out a bit more it’s only the old certs that are the fake ones, all the new purple ones are ok!
Don’t know why they didn’t say that to help people out..
But don’t get me wrong there is still some good fake’s of the new certs, iv seen them first hand and it is very hard to the difference!!!
Ha ha !
Have the NCT inspectors inspect the old discs in the cars that come in. Eventually the trail will lead back to an unscrupulous motor trader or two who bought a couple then have the guards (and taxman) shake them down and boom! Cased solved
3rd break,in (two months) all discs stolen, sick of it.
Nct is the biggest money racket going
If your car’s nct is up in January and it’s a 2002 you get it nctd and it’s due the following January but if u nct it in June but was due January you only get 6 months nct, back dated nct. Don’t make any sense the car is not going to be unsafe in them 6 months caus it was due 6 months earlier it’s still gonna be the same robbing bastrds
have your say