Buyers of new or used cars should be wary of stolen vehicles and recognise the signs of a dodgy deal.

This is the opinion of vehicle data company HPI, which highlighted that one motor is taken by criminals every five minutes.

Nicola Johnson is consumer services manager at the company and said thieves employ lots of "dirty tricks" aimed to fool innocent purchasers into handing over the cash for a stolen or cloned car.

She advised them to "use every tool available to them to help combat the vehicle fraudsters. By conducting a vehicle history check and proceeding with caution, car buyers can uncover a fake and walk away unscathed".

HPI gave some suggestions as to how buyers could minimise their risk of entering into an illegal transaction.

These included checking that the vehicle identification number has not been tampered with and researching the market value of the car beforehand. If asked to pay less than 70 per cent of this, they should "be wary" and never pay with cash.

However, once a legitimate deal has been made, they might find competitive quotes for things like breakdown cover and insurance online.

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