Call to keep VINs hidden.

A LEADING car data company is slamming the practice of displaying a car's Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on the windscreen.

Displaying VIN numbers on car windscreens is akin to leaving a credit card in the middle of the street with its pin number on the back, claims Roger Powell of mycarcheck.com - the UK's fastest growing vehicle data provider.

The reason is the worrying trend in car cloning - giving a stolen, dangerous or written off vehicle a bogus identity.

Criminal gangs are believed to be raking in billions of pounds a year in car cloning and other related vehicle crime.

It's been estimated by Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) teams across the UK that there could already be more than 100,000 cloned cars on the roads.

Often the first victims know they have been cloned is when they start getting fines for offences they never committed or worse they are involved in an accident.

A car may look all right, but if it has been written-off or stolen then insurance companies may not pay out if it is ever involved in another claim.