What has happened here?

My father in law bought a classic car from a major auction house a couple of months ago.
It's not a high value car, and the hammer went down at just over £3,000.
The car is fine, a very nice example of it's type, and was listed as "with the last owner for three years"

I checked the documents today and found a problem. The chassis number does not match that on the V5, and the engine number is different as well.
The colour and make/model/engine size are correct (more than one engine type was fitted to these)
But the numbers don't match the V5. There are a number of old MOT certificates and the chassis number is wrong on these too.

So what's happened here? Are the auction house not supposed to check that cars they sell are correct?
Why would these numbers not match? There are pictures of the car at shows over recent years and it does look like the same car.

That's why you pay an auction indeminity.

Just take it back to the auction house, they should give you your money back if it's a ringer.

I ain't no expert on this but sounds like a ringer / fraud. Take the matter up with the auction house, if they don't play ball, report it to the police (possibly do that anyway). Might be able to get the money back from the bank if the item was paid for with a credit card?

Sounds like a clone , contact auction house , and police . Do it right away , so as to give police and auctioneers best chance , and will make it a lot quicker for you as well, .

I just found this from five years ago. The story has a strange ending, my father in law did nothing, he just kept the car.
After a couple of years he decided to sell it, and the previous owner (who had put it in the auction) saw it up for sale and bought it back.
My father in law was paid on collection and has heard nothing after that, it’s three years ago now.

lightning said:

I just found this from five years ago. The story has a strange ending, my father in law did nothing, he just kept the car.
After a couple of years he decided to sell it, and the previous owner (who had put it in the auction) saw it up for sale and bought it back.
My father in law was paid on collection and had heard nothing after that, it’s three years ago now.

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Irish money laundering scam?

I don’t know. The previous owner had restored the car and my father in law let him have it back for what it went for at the auction.

This is the actual car with the auction result back in 2015.

Just been on the DVLA website, the car is still out there Taxed:
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/VehicleFound?locale=en

doriz said:

Irish money laundering scam?

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Why would you think that it has anything to do with Ireland? There was no mention of Ireland anywhere in the post. Cars here are actually less likely to be ringers because of the stringent control on all things motoring.

I honestly can’t remember how l found out that the numbers didn’t match, but l guess it’s possible that when restoring the car, the guy made one car from two.
He was clearly happy to buy it back. It was a relatively low value car, l guess l will never find out now.

It was actually great fun to drive, it was the 1500cc version and drove really well. It floated over bad roads like, well, like an old Cortina, which l guess it was underneath the “sports” bodywork.

tango90 said:

Why would you think that it has anything to do with Ireland? There was no mention of Ireland anywhere in the post. Cars here are actually less likely to be ringers because of the stringent control on all things motoring.

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I suspect it was a joke and not a commentary on the motoring standards of that fine nation.

payydg said:

I suspect it was a joke and not a commentary on the motoring standards of that fine nation.

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I appreciate that could quite likely be the case but I buy most of my vehicles in the UK as we don't get the same spec vehicles here in Ireland due to the Vehicle Registration Tax which taxes vehicles on the extras. I wouldn't like to think a view like that would hinder future purchases.
There are unscrupulous people in all corners of the world and we have our fair share of them but enthusiasts like myself have to rely on the UK market for our parts and vehicles because of the draconian legislation and taxes on anything motoring related which makes being a motoring enthusiast very difficult here.