'A hacker sold 170 ghost MOTs through our garage'

An MOT centre says a hacker broke into its computer system and sold 170 "ghost MOTs" in one week.

"Disgusted" managers at Automotive Repair Company, of South Cave, East Yorkshire, believe the hacker obtained their login details for a Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) system and issued fake MOT certificates for vehicles not seen by the garage.

Mike Longstaff, who owns the family business, said: "It just undermines all the people that do a good job in the industry. I've been MOT testing for 46 years and never known anything like this."

The DVSA said it was "committed to taking action against anyone who undermines the integrity of the MOT and compromises road safety".

According to the DVSA, a "ghost MOT" is a pass certificate provided by a fraudulent MOT tester for a vehicle they have not seen.

Mike said he was interviewed by the police and by the DVSA, who found the garage had been victims of fraud.

He said motorists just had to give fraudsters their details, make a payment "and they'll give you a certificate".

And he warned vehicles could be sold on to innocent people, who would be unaware they had not passed an MOT.

Rachael Longstaff, who manages the MOT centre, said she had compiled a list of the tests done fraudulently on their system.

"To find over 170 done within a week, it's frightening how quickly they did it."

"An MOT should be half an hour to an hour. There was one done at 11:18 and then immediately another one at 11:22."

She suspected "quite a lot" of them were for older vehicles that might not pass a genuine test.

"The worry is that vehicles are driving around with an MOT and the car really is not roadworthy," she added.

According to the DVSA, there are no known instances of the MOT Testing Service system being hacked, but there have been a small number of cases of unauthorised access where an account holder's details have been compromised.

A DVSA spokesperson said it had systems in place for "monitoring unauthorised access to the MOT testing service".

"If unauthorised access to the MTS is identified, DVSA will immediately suspend the compromised account and cancel any 'ghost' MOTs, so they are no longer valid," they added.

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