h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

removed!

I will get it updated eventually, and then resubmit it after all of the comments have been taken into account.

thanks again.

I quite agree about the DVLA: it is hardly unreasonable to use a national vehicle registry to trace a vehicle involved in the commission of a crime. To suggest that you will be prosecuted through this route simply because you once owned a green car is fatuous. If you sell a vehicle you are in any case bound to inform the DBLA, and if you sell it to a garage (who routinely keep the paperwork rather than appear as an additional owner), you should still have a receipt or other proof of change of title.

in theory true, but in practice, if you offer your car as a trade in, the paperwork you get tends to be somewhat minimal.

A neighbour of mine upgraded to a better car, and after 9 months the police came calling about a hit and run, because they were still the registered owner of the car they upgraded.

Thankfully for them, the owners of the garage confirmed that they had traded it in. however the people who bought it from them never registered it, and the people after that was a private sale, and thus the details were not checkable.

however if they hadn't have upgraded to the best car on the lot, the garage wouldn't have remembered them, so who knows what would have happened.

I will try and get the update done soon, and resubmit to peer review.

There is a weakness in the system, I agree - but there is little chance of being prosecuted if you can produce even minimal documentation (a receipt for the new car would be a good start, even if it doesn't mention the trade-in).

Anyway, even as a Guardian-reader I still have no major problem with DVLA, and I think that people who refuse to reveal the driver of their car when it's been in an accident should also be prosecuted.