Profit-motivated car crime is best stopped through regulatory reform, according to the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council (NMVTRC).

It says about 10,500 cars “appear to simply vanish altogether from our roads each year”, indicating the extent to which organised crime is converting stolen vehicles into cash.

In the year to March 31, 9838 cars were stolen for profit, and the council believes illegal activity in the second-hand goods and scrap market accounts for at least half these crimes.

Task Force Discover, an NMVTRC and Victoria Police initiative, has found “a staggering level of regulatory non-compliance” across the market facilitates the laundering of stolen vehicles.

Now the council is calling for regulatory reforms in the vehicle scrap and parts industry.

It wants “consolidation of related laws to address critical omissions and anomalies”, and “performance-based business standards set with peak industry bodies including environmental and occupational health and safety compliance”.

It also calls for the adoption of “chain-of-responsibility principles to ensure stolen vehicles or parts are not traded” and a range of “search, seizure and other tools to assure compliance, including the application of court-enforced commercial penalties to neutralise illegal profits”.

A recent Victorian Law Reform Commission report on regulatory regimes that prevent the infiltration of organised crime into lawful industries backs up the NMVTRC’s position.

The report set out four strategies: assessment of the current regulatory regime; restricting entry to industry through licensing schemes; regulating post-entry behaviour; and addressing the use of professional facilitators.

The commission says “collaboration between government agencies and industry is key” and regulators need to engage with industry on identifying risks and developing a regulatory response.