to protect our identity. That way you can register your car against the Id card. Right?

Same for the passport.

Of course if someone were then to get your 'genuine' id card, then by default they then own your car anyway.

It seems such a shame that we are moving away from a society of responsible professionals who can use experience and knowledge to get a result, and into an age when you are merely whoever the computer thinks you are at that moment in time.

It would be interesting to see that Dick from the police protesting her innocence at gunpoint - sadly the computer says you are a terr miss - bang bang.

My V5C got nicked last year and the DVLA didn't seem to care much when I phoned up asking for a replacement.

''commonly sold using dodgy documents are "Ford Transits, Nissan Navaras, BMWs, Mercedes and Audis''

So I need not worry with a hpi check on my next Citroen XM then.......

Would Windows Vista Security Centre help prevent this?

Richard,

The two reels of missing V5C forms were all blanks... unless you'd been a naughty boy and magically removed all your vehicle details from yours, only your vehicle was at risk... :-)

can you 'lift' the details using a warm iron and kitchen roll ?

cannot try this myself as a few miles away in US

They'd not expect you to dial a (to all intents and purposes) premium-rate number to check the genuosity of the document. They'd off a Freefone number, with a geographical alternative (for use by mobiles), instead.