A reason the DVLA may not receive a LoS record is where the stolen vehicle is recovered before the LoS is ‘Confirmed‘
- 10:00 pm, Monday, a vehicle is left locked, secured and unattended. The following day …
- 8:00 am, the vehicle is no longer present; it has been taken without authority
- 8:30 am, the owner reports the crime to the police
- 9:00 am, the police add the VRM to the PNC LoS register
The vehicle is not found.
The LoS marker is present on the PNC but the record is not ‘CONFIRMED‘.
- Until the record is confirmed, the DVLA will NOT be notified of the stolen status of the VRM
The PNC safety net
The crime should be confirmed within 48 hours of reporting. However, if the vehicle is found and the LoS entry removed from the PNC before the record is confirmed, no data will be sent to the DVLA – as per ‘Recovered before the LoS entry reaches the DVLA‘, i.e., they will never be aware of the LoS event/status.
After 2 weeks, if the police have not confirmed the crime, they are sent a reminder i.e this occurs – it could be a fortnight before the DVLA are notified of the LoS status. In the interim the vehicle could be found, the PNC LoS marker removed and the DVLA would be none the wiser about the ‘taking’ history.
After 6 weeks the report will be deleted if not confirmed. I have encountered occasions when vehicles taken without authority have been overlooked by the police, not confirmed within 6 weeks – during which time, if found, the status would never reach the DVLA.
Some unrecovered vehicles have been weeded at 6 weeks – they are removed from the PNC LoS register due to police oversight; a failure to ‘confirm’ the crime. No longer on the PNC LoS register, they never transfer to the DVLA.