Vehicle tampering “remains a serious and widespread issue” in the UK, says car scanner maker Carly, citing data that shows one in seven vehicles show evidence of mileage rollback (known as clocking), or Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) manipulation.
Its analysis is based on over 2,500,000 diagnostic sessions from over 550,000 UK users of its On Board Diagnostics (OBD) scanner between January and September 2025. 16.25% of UK cars checked with its tools showed evidence of tampering including identity discrepancies or mileage fraud. That amounts to nearly one in seven used cars.
Odometer tampering, it found, is a “nationwide problem,” as high-volume car markets including major cities and ports “naturally see more activity due to the number of transactions.” The findings do not show any “dramatic regional skew” with buyers in the North just as likely to see a vehicle that has been clocked as those in the south.
Carly’s scanner connects directly to a car’s OBD port and can compare mileage readings across multiple control units, helping to identify resets, inconsistencies, or VIN mismatches that would be hard to spot with only a visual inspection. There are multiple OBD scanners on the market, some of which connect to a smartphone app and can allow you to run your own diagnostics check.
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