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International VIN Check only way to catch American wrecks sold fraudulently to Canadians

The Vancouver Province (Vancouver, BC)
Sunday, December 8, 2002
Section: Front
Byline: Adrienne Tanner

ICBC probe turns up 300 salvage cars

An ICBC probe that tracked the importation of salvage vehicles from the U.S. has identified 300 cars sold fraudulently in B.C.

The vehicles were bought from salvage yards in the United States, hauled to B.C., rebuilt and passed off as undamaged goods, said ICBC spokesman Doug McClelland.

In all cases, they were not registered as salvage vehicles. Therefore, prospective buyers had no way of knowing their cars had been written off in serious accidents in the U.S.

Over the next 90 days, ICBC will be calling and writing the owners to break the bad news, McClelland said.

They will be asked to re-inspect their cars before renewing their insurance.

"All import vehicles go through an inspection whether they are salvage or not. But salvage inspections are more thorough," McClelland said.

Vehicles were written off in United States, then shipped, rebuilt, sold in B.C.

One Surrey man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was shocked when an ICBC investigator called him last week. For the past year, he has been driving a Nissan Sentra that he bought from Pavel Slivko, an Eastern European importer who was charged with fraud in connection with salvage sales earlier last week."

He [ICBC investigator] told me there was an accident in Washington.

"I was surprised and, if I had known, I would not have bought it.

"The ICBC pilot project -- the first of its kind in Canada -- was made possible when the federal government set up the Registrar of Imported Vehicles in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"The federal government got more serious about border issues and started electronically capturing vehicle identification numbers of all imported vehicles coming over the border," McClelland said.

CBC is now able to cross-reference the federal records with its own registration accounts to ensure that salvage vehicles are correctly labelled.

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. will also demand the more stringent inspection reports before registering the vehicles, McClelland said.

Today, there are still dozens of undocumented salvage vehicles for sale in the Lower Mainland. In just one day of car shopping, a Province investigation found three such vehicles being sold by a ring of Eastern European importers.

Police and ICBC sources say consumers should check cars thoroughly before buying through private sales.

© Copyright 2002 Vancouver Province
Edition: Final
Story Type: Crime
Length: 376 words

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