The DVSA has confirmed that paper MOT certificates should be viewed only as a receipt of the test and customers should check the validity of a vehicle’s MOT using the Governments online database.

It made the statement in response to a Freedom of Information request by Claims Management & Adjusting (CMA).

Philip Swift, former police detective and managing director of CMA, said: “This important clarification should signal a change in consumer best practice. Most car buyers accept the paper MOT at face value, but 25 years of investigating cloned and clocked vehicles has taught us not to be so trusting.

“Vehicle crime has become highly sophisticated but when it comes to paper MOTs a lot of the tactics are rudimentary, commonly simple photocopies with the mileage altered. In one recent case, someone had downloaded the sample certificate from the government website, filled it in and passed it off as genuine. They should at least put a watermark on that because they’ve inadvertently provided a handy resource for fraudsters.”