Private company

Cartell

Irish vehicle checking company

Cartell is an Irish vehicle checking company which commenced trading in 2006. It operates an online service to allow prospective vehicle purchasers to verify the history of a vehicle before purchasing. The checks available include details of finance problems, insurance write-offs, ownership history and whether a vehicle was formerly used as a taxi.² Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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The story

On 17 July 2013, Cartell again called on the Garda to release details of stolen cars. Ireland is currently the only nation in the European Union where the police do not make details of stolen cars available to car check agencies or directly to the public. In all other EU member states this information is uploaded to Interpol, which allows instant checks to be made on any suspect vehicle. Currently any search done on an Irish-registered vehicle will not reveal if the vehicle has been reported stolen. Around 10,000 cars are stolen every year in Ireland and about 2,000 of these are never recovered. Currently buyers of used cars have no way to check against theft records, and hundreds of buyers a year lose an average of from €10,000 to €20,000 after buying stolen cars which are then discovered and returned to their original owner. The Garda claim that they cannot pass on the information because of data protection issues.

From Wikipedia’s article on Cartell, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.³

Products and brands

Services

Cartell operates an online check system for both private and trade buyers. A free check will show the manufacturer and model of the vehicle when a Vehicle Registration Number is entered. Paid checks allow further information to be obtained for varying fees. Information available includes:

Checks to identify vehicles written off by an insurance company using the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register Ireland, an initiative begun by Cartell based on its experience with the UK equivalent

Checks with lenders to identify outstanding finance issues involving the vehicle

Mileage checks against the National Mileage Register, a database of Irish-registered vehicles established by Cartell

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Verification of Vehicle Identification Number and registration papers

Number of previous owners and whether the previous registration was as a private or commercial vehicle

Vehicle details, including body shape, number of doors, engine number and engine capacity

The firm has an agreement with HPI UK, a similar company based in the United Kingdom, to allow finance, ownership and insurance checks to be carried out on vehicles imported into Ireland from the UK. It also has access to the UK National Mileage Register.

Since 2002, the firm has been attempting to gain access to the Garda Síochána's vehicle theft records, to allow them to check if a vehicle has been previously reported as stolen.

Vehicle write offs

In 2008, Cartell passed information to the Road Safety Authority about the issue of written-off cars from the UK being imported, repaired and registered for use in Ireland. The subsequent Irish Times article provoked an investigation by the Garda Siochána, Vehicle Registration Unit, Road Safety Authority and Revenue Commissioners. This resulted in a change to legislation requiring that from September 2010 all imported vehicles must be taken to a National Car Test Centre for inspection before being registered in Ireland.

In 2014, Cartell called for Regulation of Written off vehicles in Ireland estimating there were over 200,000 write offs in the Irish fleet at any time. A subsequent article in the Irish Examiner reported that six deaths a year caused by written off cars

In January 2014, opposition TD Timmy Dooley (FF) raised the issue in the Dáil. The then Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar (FG) responded by announcing he was set to introduce “Death Certificates” for vehicles written off as the result of collision damage and to appoint the Road Safety Authority to oversee a new process of independently verifying repaired vehicles before they are returned to the roads (Parliamentary Debates, Wednesday, 15 January 2014, Written Answer No. 963).

In July 2016, the company welcomed reports that Minister for Transport, Shane Ross (Ind), brought new legislation to cabinet to compel insurers to notify his Department of Category A and Category B write-offs.

Vehicle clocking

In 2010, the firm's legal branch drafted a legislative proposal proposing outlawing the clocking of vehicle odometers, which was not illegal in Ireland at the time. The principal drafter of the Bill was barrister John P Byrne. It was presented to the Oireachtas by Cartell director Jeff Aherne and recommended by Tommy Broughan TD, who at the time was the Labour Party transport spokesman, but did not progress into law.