{"id":22867,"date":"2026-04-26T06:37:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/ghost-mots-drivers-warned-over-fake-certificates-that-lead-to-huge-repair-bills\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T06:37:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T04:37:38","slug":"ghost-mots-drivers-warned-over-fake-certificates-that-lead-to-huge-repair-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/ghost-mots-drivers-warned-over-fake-certificates-that-lead-to-huge-repair-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghost MOTs: drivers warned over fake certificates that lead to huge repair bills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Secondhand car buyers urged to carefully inspect vehicles, while owners told to beware tests that are suspiciously quick<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/money\/2026\/apr\/23\/ghost-owners-uk-vehicles-in-use-without-proper-records-dvla\">Rise of the \u2018ghost owner\u2019: 18,000 UK vehicles in use without proper records<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You have just bought a secondhand car. It was older than you wanted, but were reassured because it had recently passed its MOT.<\/p>\n<p>Within a few days, you notice a problem with the steering and take it into a garage to be checked. As well as that issue, they find the tread depth of the tyres is so low it should not have passed the test.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/money\/2026\/apr\/26\/ghost-mot-drivers-warned-fake-certificates-repair-bills-tests\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/920a8f58f7dd998688122a4444a9715491abfe87\/0_573_3425_2739\/master\/3425.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=38d509704cb91186c322257996e31bdf\" title=\"Ghost MOTs: drivers warned over fake certificates that lead to huge repair bills\" \/>Secondhand car buyers urged to carefully inspect vehicles, while owners told to beware tests that are suspiciously quick<br \/>\nRise of the \u2018ghost owner\u2019: 18,000 UK vehicles in use without proper records<br \/>\nYou have just bought a secondhand car. It was older than you wanted, but were reassured because it had recently passed its MOT.<br \/>\nWithin a few days, you notice a problem with the steering and take it into a garage to be checked. As well as that issue, they find the tread depth of the tyres is so low it should not have passed the test. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secondhand car buyers urged to carefully inspect vehicles, while owners told to beware tests that are suspiciously quick Rise of the \u2018ghost owner\u2019: 18,000 UK vehicles in use without proper records You have just bought a secondhand car. It was older than you wanted, but were reassured because it had recently passed its MOT. Within &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/ghost-mots-drivers-warned-over-fake-certificates-that-lead-to-huge-repair-bills\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Ghost MOTs: drivers warned over fake certificates that lead to huge repair bills<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":22868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22867"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}