A ROW has broken out over claims by Trading Standards chiefs that fleets are disposing of vehicles without full documentation. Peter Stratton, of Essex County Council Trading Standards and the Institute of Trading Standards Administration's motor trade expert said fleets often disposed of vehicles through auction, dealers and the trade without their full service history and mileage details.

'If they are high mileage vehicles they can be bought at auction and easily clocked and then sold through the small advertisements. That impacts on everyone who operates legitimately in the trade including fleets,' said Stratton.

When disposing of vehicles he said all fleets should:

• Submit the V5 document with the vehicle
• Always submit the vehicle's full service history
• Always sell to an identifiable trader
• Always guarantee mileage
• Always record the vehicle's mileage on the V5

There were claims that some contract hire and leasing companies were among the major offenders and Tom Madden, customer affairs director of British Car Auctions, said: 'We don't get V5s or service histories from some of those companies. That is the sort of issue which the legislators should resolve.'

Controversially, Stratton claimed that some high mileage vehicles were not disposed of as carefully as more valuable lower mileage vehicles leading to them being used in criminal activity such as clocking as full details of the vehicle were not available at disposal.