Dublin, Ireland December 13, 2010:  Up to 40,000 imported cars on Irish roads could be write offs according to a new report from car history analysis company ‘Cartell’.  Cartell has today launched a new initiative to help keep track of UK write-offs which are put back on the roads and exported to unsuspecting drivers in Ireland.  Cartell’s new UK & Irish write-off database was unveiled today in Dublin.

 Insurers in Ireland can also now access write-off data - according to the extent of the damage of write-off – using the United Kingdom Category A to D System. This is the first cross-border data accessing initiative of its kind in Europe. The number of imported vehicles from the United Kingdom in the Irish fleet is approximately 400,000. The number of those imports which have previous write-off status is almost 10%.

A proof of concept was carried out between Irish insurers – the lead insurer was AVIVA – Cartell.ie, and MIAFTR UK which showed multiple accounts of fraud including where previously damaged UK vehicles were involved in staged accidents in the Republic of Ireland with identical damage resulting.

As part of this data-sharing, Irish insurers agreed to release write-off data to the public via an independent third party for the first time bringing it into line with its UK equivalent.

This new category system paves the way for legislation in Ireland to implement the Vehicle Identification Check (VIC).

Paul Gurhy general insurance and brand marketing director of Aviva Ireland says: "Aviva is a strong supporter of any initiative that improves road safety as just one way in which we look out for the needs of consumers and three key pillars of road safety are engineering, enforcement and education.  The initiative unveiled today by Cartell is a core building block of the education pillar of road safety and empowers consumers and insurers with absolutely vital information about the record of damage to vehicles and their road worthiness."