For the year 2013 the Vehicle Theft Reduction Council of Malaysia (VTREC) continued to pursue the recovery of stolen vehicles from Thailand together with the assistance of the Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM) and the office of the Consulate General of Malaysia in Songhkla, Thailand. However, the authorities in Thailand wishes further discussion with the Malaysian counterpart on the various legal issues.
The insurance industry had completed 2 of the initiatives derived from the ‘Awana Workshop’ in 2011. The platform for the risk based premium assessment had been launched by ISM Insurance Bhd in early 2013 in its Knowledge Management System (KMS). KMS allows member companies to access data on the frequency of theft of vehicles by models for their underwriting purposes. Another initiative that has been completed is the Motor Anti-Fraud Register (MAFR) which was launched in July 2013. The MAFR was a joint effort of VTREC and ISM in developing a system for detection of fraud in the ‘rebirthing’ of stolen or Total Loss vehicles into the market. As at end of 2013, MAFR had detected 116 cases of renewals of insurance with prior records of stolen and Total Loss vehicles. Although most of the cases were errors or discrepancies, 33 renewals were cancelled or deleted from Insurers’ records which could be for avoidance of attempts to defraud member companies.
