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A website called Motability Check has surfaced – letting users plug in number plates to see if a car’s funded “by the taxpayer”
See here :-
https://www.motabilitycheck.com/
Work and Pensions Minister Baroness Sherlock claimed she was “shocked” by the site’s existence, while crossbench peer Baroness Grey-Thompson described it as “terrifying” and “despicable,” declaring it “crosses a line to incitement”.
I believe this to be potentially a hateful action towards disabled members, being disabled is a protected characteristic under UK law, and maybe a NCHI should be launched.
Or am I overreacting?
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Anyone aware of websites you can search a database to see if a vehicle is exempt from VED or the owner of the vehicle is. Not even the goverment website shows this level of information!
Any company can request this type of data, although they would have to provide a reason for wanting it which I would suspect this website does not comply with. For example – Data requests from DVLA – GOV.UK
kdwolf – admitting you watch GB news – in the current climate – dangerous – you do know your thoughts are about to be policed.
Good point. Promise to be schtum (although don’t know how many new Londoners will understand what I have just wrote).
Sent from a mobile device.
Apologies for briefness and spelling mistakes.Motability Skoda Enyaq SportLine 85x April 2024 (unhappy customer - Ombudsman pending)
Motability Mazda CX-60 July 2023 (unhappy customer - early termination on mechanical grounds)
Motability VW Touran Family Pack May 2019 (happy customer)Anyone aware of websites you can search a database to see if a vehicle is exempt from VED or the owner of the vehicle is. Not even the goverment website shows this level of information!
Any company can request this type of data, although they would have to provide a reason for wanting it which I would suspect this website does not comply with. For example – Data requests from DVLA – GOV.UK
Exactly!
Bulk data requests are primarily for the motoring trade, but also buyers doing HP, write off checks etc. This does not provide vehicle tax class.
Anonymised data ser requests ( data is encrypted and supplied via CD and
despatched using a secure delivery service.) are for marketing based businesses and provides vehicle tax class, keepers title, partial postcode, including some details in Bulk Data requrests, like make model. But not the vehicle owner!To get this data in any great amount, I would imagine you would have to prove you are a bona fide business and state your reasons for requesting this data and pay any up front and ongoing costs to the DVLA, unless free to access.
So we can safely say, it is a bona fide marketing business, who have requested Anonymised data OR someone in the right place, who can access this data through their work illegitimately. I suspect the latter, as marketing firms normaly identify who they are!
Most likely someone with a beef who works in the motor trade I suspect. As it is clearly designed to cause hostility towards Motability and their customers, I wonder if someone at Motability Operations might be able to flag it to DVLA? Maybe if they determine that the information is being accessed for illegitimate purposes, they might be able to block access or at least identify where it has originated from. If it’s a rogue employee of a dealership or manufacturer, their employer might have a view on it!
Like most of you, I strongly disagree with the website and its intended use. However, I believe an HPI car check will show the name of the finance lender i.e. Motability finance or similar, hence how the vehicles are probably being flagged. Please, do correct me if I am wrong.
In other news – my car was parked in Stratford yesterday by the RSC. Next to a wall and displaying my blue badge. I came out of the theatre with my daughter to find three young adults – two sat on the wall the third sat on my car bonnet while they all had a fag.
One odd thing about this search is that it isn’t 100% accurate, unlike the DVLA ‘check if a car is taxed’ search. For the 3 cars that I look after, it correctly states that my 2 daughters cars are not Motability cars and ours is ‘Possible Motability’, but others are reporting that their Motability cars are not showing as such. Unfortunately, amongst my wide circle of friends and family, nobody else has a Motability car, nor do any of my neighbours (unless the Porsche Macan EV and Audi Q7 have joined the scheme and I’ve missed it 😂), so I can’t do much of a scientific study, but it’s not totally reliable.
Given that this site is called ‘Motability Check’ (which exposes its true purpose), it’s not a very reliable check. It concerns me that we live in a culture now where just a suspicion or rumour about something, whether it’s true or not, is seized upon as ‘fact’ on social media by those who are always looking for something to be angry about. Although the catalyst would probably be a neighbour dispute or similar, I fear that it’s only a matter of time before this website becomes the trigger for aggravation of some sort against a Motability customer.
Most likely someone with a beef who works in the motor trade I suspect. As it is clearly designed to cause hostility towards Motability and their customers, I wonder if someone at Motability Operations might be able to flag it to DVLA? Maybe if they determine thaing t the information is being accessed for illegitimate purposes, they might be able to block access or at least identify where it has originated from. If it’s a rogue employee of a dealership or manufacturer, their employer might have a view on it!
To All and in response to GG’s earlier 2 posts this morning.
The site is focusing on vehicles tax class, particulary those that are exempt, but thats as accurate as it gets, in that it can’t define it can’t define Motability vehicles from privately owned vehicles with exemption and possibly emergency vehicles that are also exempt and therefore has an accuracy of 97-98% it’s a Motability vehicle.
IMO the data is coming from either, the Anonymised data set, possibly rogue employee who has copied the CD set the information is available onto USB drive OR somebody with insider knowledge from Motability or the DVLA and have copied the information for their own needs.
The website claims to access data through the DVLA public data API’s, but without doubt is attained through block information requests, rather than singular requests i.e carrying out a vehicle check yourself.
The websites Privacy policy, is minimal in comparison, but cleverly laid out, as well, as stating the site does not use cookies, collect, store, or process any personal data YET hosts 2 tracking sites by JsDelivr, thus agains’t GDPR.
Similarly the websites Anti-Harassment and Anti-Hate Policy, is similarly minimal and cleverly put together.
The website does not provide any form of “contact you” information, thus agains’t UK GDPR rules.
We can therefore say the website is not legit (which we gathered) and needs to be taken down. The question is how!
1) If to Motability, its better directed to the CEO of Operations or CEO of the Foundation:
a) Individually write using a similar template.
b) Group (Forum) letter, but only if @wmcforum is willing
2) Similar to above, but directed to Work and Pensions Minister Baroness Sherlock
3) Directly to the ICO, but this would have to be more specific
Kezo you have obviously spent a lot of time and effort on this – as have many others – thank you to you all – hopefully this site can be taken down – and people’s anxiety lessened – good job 👍👍👍
Further information:
Name: MOTABILITYCHECK.COM
Registry Domain ID: 3002486674_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Domain Status:clientTransferProhibitedclientUpdateProhibited
Nameservers:BRADEN.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COMJOCELYN.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
DatesRegistry Expiration: 2026-07-21 11:52:15 UTC
Updated: 2025-07-21 17:49:54 UTC
Created: 2025-07-21 11:52:15 UTCRegistrar Information
Name: Tucows Domains Inc.
IANA ID: 69
Abuse contact email: domainabuse@tucows.com
Abuse contact phone: tel:+1.4165350123
DNSSEC Information
Delegation Signed: UnsignedAuthoritative Servers
Registry Server URL: https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/motabilitycheck.com
Last updated from Registry RDAP DB: 2025-07-28T10:47:31Z
Registrar Server URL: https://opensrs.rdap.tucows.com/domain/MOTABILITYCHECK.COMNot alot to identifi the culprit!
Nice work @kezo. This needs to be treated as an incitement to hate a protected group and reported accordingly. I’m sure Motability would be aware of the site’s existence and working on some method of bringing it down.
@Glos_Guy imagine the AP on either of those two beasts😳😂
The work on the site is pretty basic, anyone with a private plate that’s of the older Prefix style (Lnnn LLL) will be told they’re not submitting a genuine number, it’s format is restricted to the current format only. I knew private plates would have some advantages 😂😂
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Unless you type the website address, it is not easily search by simply typing Motability Check on IE or Google, however, it does direct to this site, so maybe the topic title needs to be changed slightly, although it can be found on social media more easily?
@MFillingham indeed the site is very basic and with little to no knowledge of programming it is to acheive, especially given the number of website builders around these days!They have also posted same on Motability website:
https://news.motability.co.uk/scheme-news/scheme-vehicle-checker-website/
Seat Ateca FR Sport
Thanks @Jojoe – lets hope they sort it!
I’m glad that Motability are taking this on. I was going to contact them to suggest that they do, so that’s saved me a job!
@kezo Interesting comments. GDPR is an area of law that I’m not well versed on, as my dealings on it were purely from an implementation perspective when I was working, but aren’t violations only applicable when it concerns information relating to named individuals, not things like vehicles?I would have thought that there could be a potential case under incitement laws but, again, it’s not one of my areas of expertise.
The websites Privacy policy, is minimal in comparison, but cleverly laid out, as well, as stating the site does not use cookies, collect, store, or process any personal data YET hosts 2 tracking sites by JsDelivr, thus agains’t GDPR.
They don’t.
I recommend https://themarkup.org/blacklight for easy scanning of webpages.
It does have a script running that prevents 3rd party cookie blocking by uBlock etc, but that’s a cloudflare script.
JsDelivr is a CDN, it’s a grey area. In the EU, and in particular germany, it may be a different story – in the UK, their datahandling is considered adequate enough to comply with GDPR.
Indeed, they can collect non-identifying/non-personal data as much as they want, as that isn’t covered by the GDPR. For reference, any data that doesn’t directly or indirectly reveals personal information about you as a person is considered “fair game”.
The website does not provide any form of “contact you” information, thus agains’t UK GDPR rules.
This is also false.
There’s no requirement (GDPR or otherwise) for a website owner to add a contact form, if no data is collected. The reasons for that would be the right to be forgotten (amongst others), (all of) which doesn’t apply since they don’t collect anything in the first place.
The only issue, privacy wise, is the cloudflare script. Canvas fingerprinting likely falls under the GDPR, but that’s not an issue with whatever dipstick runs the website itself, but the hoster.
I absolutely hate defending this garbage, but going all Trump on the webpage doesn’t help anyone. They are GDPR compliant, the canvas fingerprinting is done by cloudflare, so this particular angle will not result in anything.
I think the most promising angle is harassment/discrimination/incitement, personally.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.@kezo almost figured out how to get this info when he mentioned HPI, but made the error of assuming tax class was involved.
I think Motability may be incorrect, by mentioning DVLA.
When checking if a vehicle is in a finance agreement, it shows the name of the finance company, i.e. Motability.
Although the check isn’t free, you can pay extra for unlimited checks. All the website owner has to do is get some data on site visits, then get adverts on the site generating income.
Here is what i get with my private plate
Please enter a valid UK registration plate in standard format (e.g., BD51 SMR) or Northern Ireland format (e.g., ABC 1234)
Here is what i get with my private plate Please enter a valid UK registration plate in standard format (e.g., BD51 SMR) or Northern Ireland format (e.g., ABC 1234)
That’s interesting. I have two private plates, but they are both on retention so I can’t check them on the site. I didn’t assign either of them to our current car as, although they both comprise my initials, the first parts refer to BMWs (X5 and 530) and, unfortunately, we didn’t get a BMW this time (not that either of those two specific BMWs will ever appear on the scheme 😔
As our current car is a Hyundai, I don’t think it would be the subject of jealousy or hate crimes (😂), but if we stay with the scheme and some half decent BMWs return I might assign one of the plates to it!
Here is what i get with my private plate Please enter a valid UK registration plate in standard format (e.g., BD51 SMR) or Northern Ireland format (e.g., ABC 1234)
Same for myself. Massive fail on their part, nice! 😆👍
I personally believe that whoever is *really* behind this evil and divisive website is far more sinister than it simply being some random individual. I don’t believe in coincidences on this scale and the sheer volume of attacks through the media on Motability right now indicate, to me, a far higher source than it simply being an individual.
Not by chance, not by coincidence.
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