A clocked car can look £2,000 cheaper than it should. Or £2,000 worse than it is.
Every MOT records the mileage on test day. By comparing readings over the years, SortedCheck builds a mileage trajectory for any UK car — and flags suspicious drops or abnormal jumps that suggest clocking (illegal mileage tampering, an offence under the Fraud Act 2006). This check is free and uses open DVSA data.
A full trajectory built from every MOT test on record.
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"Clocking" is the term for winding back a car's odometer to make a high-mileage car look like a low-mileage one. The fraud is older than the digital odometer — but modern instrument clusters, far from making it harder, have made it cheaper. Software tools that plug into the OBD-II port can adjust most digital odometers in minutes. The defence, fortunately, is also digital: DVSA records the mileage shown at every MOT test in the UK, going back to 2005, and that record is published for free.
Adjusting the displayed mileage with intent to deceive a buyer is a criminal offence under the Fraud Act 2006 — specifically section 2, fraud by false representation. The maximum sentence on indictment is 10 years' imprisonment plus an unlimited fine. The same conduct is also caught by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, which gives Trading Standards a parallel enforcement route and gives the buyer civil remedies — including the right to unwind the contract and recover the money paid. Selling a clocked car as a private individual is unlawful even where there is no formal "trade".
It is not in itself unlawful to adjust an odometer (for example, after replacing a faulty instrument cluster) — what is unlawful is failing to disclose the adjustment to a buyer.
Every MOT test, since 2005, captures the odometer reading. DVSA publishes the full sequence: test date, reading, pass or fail. Plot the readings year by year and odometer fraud almost always shows up as one of these patterns:
SortedCheck's free check runs this analysis automatically and flags the result on the report page.
The UK MOT record only starts when the car is first registered in Great Britain. For imported vehicles — particularly Japanese imports and EU imports — there is no UK MOT history before the import date, and the seller's claimed pre-import mileage cannot be cross-checked here. Ask for the original certificate of de-registration from the country of origin, plus any service records from before import. Ex-fleet and ex-lease cars can have suspiciously round mileage (e.g. exactly 60,000 miles) because lease-end excess-mileage charges incentivise the previous keeper to wind back. Both warrant extra scrutiny.
Walk away from the sale. If you have already bought the car you have routes:
For UK-registered cars over three years old, yes — every annual MOT logs the reading and the data goes back to 2005. The odd year-on-year discrepancy can have innocent explanations (replaced instrument cluster, recorded in kilometres in error) but a real clocking attempt almost always leaves a visible trace.
Service-history stamps in the digital service record (DSR) and physical service book are the next best source. Ask for stamps from a franchised dealer if the car is recent enough, and cross-check with any inspection or warranty records. For new used cars the manufacturer's central database is the authoritative source.
Sometimes. Most modern cars store mileage in multiple electronic control units — the dashboard, the key fob, the gearbox controller — and a poorly executed adjustment leaves discrepancies a marque specialist can read out using diagnostic software. Manufacturer-only diagnostic systems are typically the most thorough.
Replacing or repairing an instrument cluster can legitimately reset the displayed mileage to zero or a different number. The intervention itself is not unlawful — the fraud is in failing to disclose it to a buyer. A reputable bodyshop will record the change in the service history and on the V5C correspondence with DVLA.
Clocking is the illegal practice of reducing a car's displayed mileage to make it appear lower-mileage than it actually is. It's an offence under the Fraud Act 2006 with up to 10 years in prison.
We pull every MOT mileage reading for the car and plot them chronologically. Any drop (reading lower than an earlier one) is a hard flag. Abnormally low annual mileage (under 2,000 miles/year on a normal car) is a soft flag worth investigating.
A drop between any two MOTs. A sudden change in annual pattern (e.g. 12,000/year for 5 years, then 1,000/year for 2 years). Round-number readings (consistently ending in 000). Large gaps where the car was mysteriously not MOT'd.
Yes. OFT estimated 6% of cars (1 in 16) have had mileage adjusted. It became more common after 2014 when 'mileage-correction' services became legally ambiguous. Always verify MOT history, not just the dashboard.
Walk away. Don't negotiate — a clocker will lie about other things too. Then report to Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline (0808 223 1133), which passes it to Trading Standards.