Vehicle identity theft is causing the Transport Control Department headaches and leading to innocent people getting parking tickets they were not to blame for, can reveal.

And TCD has begun to ask cycle companies to get moped owners to give their assessment numbers when registering for licences.

People can still own an unlimited amount of auxiliary and motorcycles, even in shared accommodation, but the companies that sell them are complaining about the extra bureaucracy which they say is unnecessary.

Some guest workers who left the island years ago are still getting tickets for offences committed by people using their names and addresses. TCD is aware of the problem but said it was very difficult to stop.

Wheels President David Panchaud said TCD had sprang the new stipulation on them on Thursday which had led to one bike owner having a delay in getting a new machine.

TCD Acting Director Charles Clarke said there was no difference in TCD?s policy but asking bike companies to provide assessment numbers stopped TCD clerks from having to do the work. He explained bike firms could look up the numbers on the Government?s land valuation website.

?We are just trying to tidy things up. It isn?t a major inconvenience. No one has said it was a terrible pain. What we are doing is making it easier for all concerned.

?We need to work together. If they are not willing to work with us it creates some sort of a problem. The average bike company has perhaps three or four bikes they bring to us per week.

?It isn?t like they are registering hundreds. And people can have a hundred bikes but only one car per household.?

But Mr. Panchaud said he would now have to invest in Internet to get the extra information if people couldn?t provide it.

?I don?t have a problem but let us know what we need to do before things happen. He said he sent documents to Oleander but what about everybody else in the industry? And I don?t know if Joe Public knows about it.

?I was a bit miffed when yesterday they sent back a form because they needed an assessment number, it was the very first time.?

He said he could not get a proper explanation about why the changes were needed.

Mr. Clarke told that the stipulation requiring assessment numbers had been around for years.

Mr. Clarke said of the practice of using other?s names and addresses: ?People come in, put a bike on someone?s address and the person who lives there is asked about the vehicle.

?We have had people getting parking tickets for a bike who then tell us they don?t even own a bike but it?s in their name and no one knows who the bike belongs to.

?I cannot explain why people do these types of things. We have at least two or three outstanding, people bring parking tickets to us but they don?t have a bike.?

He said the same thing had happened with cars with new owners not registering them when they changed hands.

?People have left Bermuda, sold their cars to people who never transfer it out of their name.?

The seller then returns for a holiday to a pile of un-paid parking tickets but cannot remember who they sold the car to.

Mr. Clarke said TCD was working on the problem but it was difficult to stop when it had happened. He said Police did not see catching the vehicle identity thieves as high priority.

?If they put out an APB it can take a week before they get the first sighting. It isn?t like everybody is going to remember they are looking for that vehicle. Police won?t concentrate on something like that.

?There could be a 24-hour blitz but if they don?t see it they forget about it.?

He urged vehicle dealers to be careful when taking address details from people. Mr. Clarke hopes the stipulation for people licensing bike to include their assessment numbers will help make it more difficult.

But Mr. Panchaud countered that if people were capable of using other people?s names and addresses they were capable of looking up their assessment number on the Government?s website.