Odometer tampering is a dangerous practice that puts the community at risk while lining the pockets of those who engage in it. And it’s at the expense of the consumers they are ripping off.
Consumer Protection recently had a win in the Courts against a couple of mates who rolled back the odometers on two vehicles by more than 200,000 kilometres each. What’s especially shocking is one of the men is a licensed motor vehicle salesperson.
Zoran Zozoli purchased an Isuzu D-Max that had travelled 350,686 kilometres He altered the odometer reading to 138,000km by replacing the car’s dashboard and instrument cluster. Two months later, he sold the vehicle without log-books for double what he paid, making a profit of $12,500.
Around the same time, Zozoli’s friend, Nikola Jarkovacki, bought a Jeep Cherokee with an odometer reading of 251,642km. Within five months, he had replaced the licence plate and tampered with the odometer to show a reading of only 46,739km. He then sold it at a $24,500 profit.
Both were charged with altering and misrepresenting a vehicle’s odometer reading, in breach of the Motor Vehicle Dealers Act. Zozoli pleaded guilty and received a $21,000 fine, while Jarkovacki was convicted in his absence and fined $30,000 plus costs.
Aside from misrepresenting a car’s value, if an odometer doesn’t reflect the number of kilometres a vehicle has travelled, the necessary checks, services and repairs may not be carried out at the required times, potentially leaving unsuspecting consumers exposed to mechanical and safety issues.
Both digital and analogue odometers can be tampered with and changed. Many newer vehicles have digital control units or computers that may allow for the odometer to be replaced or reprogramed using fraudulent software.
Selling vehicles without logbooks can be a deliberate tactic to hide the true mileage of a vehicle, so it is important consumers are alert to this and reconsider going through with the deal if a seller can’t provide this important documentation.
