Checks to stop terror attacks using hire cars

MOTORISTS hiring cars will go through criminal record checks for the first time to try to prevent terrorists using vehicles as weapons, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Europcar, Europe’s biggest car hire company which rents out its fleet of 60,000 cars and vans in the UK to over a million motorists annually, is planning to introduce the checks from the end of this year.

Rental vehicles were used as weapons, causing 14 deaths and injuries to almost 90 others, in attacks in Westminster, Southwark and Finsbury Park between March and June last year.

Both Khalid Masood, who hired a car to carry out the Westminster attack, and Darren Osborne, who used a hired van in the Finsbury Park attack, had criminal records.

Masood had a range of convictions including criminal damage, assault, GBH and possession of offensive weapons. Osborne’s 102 offences included assault, theft and burglary.

A British Vehicle and Rental Leasing Association report warned last week that terrorists were being urged by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and al-qaeda to “wage individual jihad” and use hire cars as “mowing machines – not to mow grass but to mow down the enemies of Allah”.

Eligibility for renting a vehicle, beyond the requirement to hold an appropriate licence, is set by vehicle hire companies, who can also set additional criteria such as age restrictions and minimum driving experience. Typically companies presently ask drivers to provide for details of their home address and their dates of birth.

However, Europcar – Europe’s biggest car hire company – is planning to carry out criminal record checks on motorists from the end of this year.

Drivers will also be checked against a list maintained by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers economic sanctions against terrorists. Their names will also be checked against an anti-fraud database.

Ben Wallace, the Security Minister, told The Daily Telegraph that the Government was working “with the police and vehicle rental industry to explore what more can be done to prevent the malicious use of vehicles”.