We’re publishing new guidance on how you can report MOT fraud to help protect the public against unsafe vehicles.

Most garage owners and MOT testers follow the rules and work within legitimately run businesses, but there are still those who try to cheat the system.

Within the last year we investigated 2,057 fraud reports which resulted in stopping 156 garages and 335 testers from testing.

How to make a report

You may have been told by a customer or a colleague about a garage that may be breaking the law.

We want to hear from you – MOT fraud effectively allows unsafe vehicles on the road.

Full guidance on making a report

What you can report

You can report an MOT tester or garage if you think they’re breaking the law, which includes:

• giving an MOT certificate to a vehicle that should have failed
• giving an MOT certificate to a vehicle they’ve not tested
• taking bribes for MOT certificates
• failing vehicles unnecessarily to generate work

What happens next

When we receive a report, we will review the information provided and where appropriate we will investigate.

If we do find that fraud has been committed, we can take the following action depending on how serious the offence is. This means that a garage or tester could be:

• fined
• banned from carrying out MOTs
• given a prison sentence

Other checks we make

As you may know, we don’t just rely on public reports to tackle MOT fraud.

We also check garages are operating within the law through site visits, vehicle inspections, mystery shopper exercises and covert surveillance by specialist teams.