A report published earlier this month by the French national auditor, the Cour des comptes, estimates that registration-related fraud may have cost the state and local authorities more than €550 million between 2022 and 2024.
The roots of the current situation lie in a major administrative reform implemented in 2017, when the French government closed vehicle registration counters in prefectures and transferred nearly all procedures online.
The reform aimed to modernise public services by digitising administrative processes and reducing waiting times for motorists. Instead of visiting government offices, vehicle owners could now complete registration procedures through digital platforms or through authorised professionals. In effect, part of the vehicle registration system was privatised.
Central to the registration system is the Système d’Immatriculation des Véhicules (SIV), which records information about every vehicle registered in France. The platform allows authorised users to create, modify, and validate vehicle registration certificates - cartes grises.
Today, more than 30,000 authorised operators - including car dealerships, garages, and specialised registration service providers - are able to access the database and process registration requests.
The report by the auditors identifies over thirty different types of fraud linked to vehicle registration procedures. Some of the most common practices include:
the creation of fake registration certificates,
identity theft linked to vehicle ownership,
the appearance of so-called “ghost vehicles” in official databases,
and the illegal registration of stolen vehicles.
The most striking example highlighted in the report is the phenomenon of “fictitious garages.”
In this scheme, individuals or criminal networks create fake companies posing as legitimate automotive businesses. These entities apply for authorisation to access the SIV and are granted credentials allowing them to process registration requests.
Once inside the system, the fraudulent companies can register vehicles under the company’s name. This makes it possible to bypass certain taxes while concealing the identity of the real owners.
Investigators believe that around one million vehicles may have been registered fraudulently through approximately 300 fictitious companies.
As the SIV functions primarily as an administrative registry rather than an investigative tool, real-time cross-checking with police records, insurance databases, customs information, or stolen-vehicle registries is limited.
As a result, fraudulent activity often goes unnoticed until long after it has occurred. By the time irregularities are detected, vehicles may already have been resold multiple times or used in illegal activities.
The auditors recommend a major restructuring of the system, including reducing the number of authorised intermediaries and introducing stricter controls before registrations are validated.
Professionals also emphasise that buyers themselves can take certain precautions when purchasing a vehicle.
One of the most important steps that can be taken to protect against fraud is to undertake an on-line check, to an official website, of the history of the vehicle, a link to which is contained in the guide below.
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