@Mark Hodgson, Apr 11, 2018 at 8:57 AM

..."More than 3 million end of life cars go missing in the EU every year. That’s about a third of all vehicles that are scrapped. This hit a high point at nearly 4.7 million in 2014, the latest year for which data is available."

"There is an underworld of illegal car scrappers who don’t follow the EU’s safety and environmental rules. The money they save by flouting the law allows them to offer car owners higher prices, undermining lower paying authorized car scrappers.

“If you’re an illegal operator, you don’t care if you spill oil on the ground. You already have a competitive advantage,” said Thomas Papageorgiou, chair of the European Ferrous Recovery and Recycling Federation."

Politicians again fail to understand the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Here's how it works:

MOT Fail - Chasis/floorpan corrosion and beyond economic repair.

1. Car goes to breakers and engine, gearbox, suspension, wheels, windows, interior, bonnet, bumpers etc sold. Shell then crushed & recycled. Paperwork not done as deemed waste of time - it is.
or
2. Some are drained & exported to Africa for re-use.

The car has been recycled, but not in the box-ticking way EU wants.

.
The oil etc polution bit is BS, breakers rely on customers and they don't want to wade through a stinking sludge of oil & mud.

The real bad ones are those protected "minorities" - pikeys who rob, steal, assault, fly-tip*, squat etc whilst police and state ignore.

Case in point: police say they can't stop pikeys leaving flowers etc where robber pikey died. Yes they can, arrest for littering/fly-tipping.

.
"Politicians again fail to understand the Law of Unintended Consequences." - YES

*fly-tipping - Mrs Hairdresser fined for fly-tipping for putting her junk-mail letters in "domestic" paper bank. Ones near me are plastered with such warnings - state insanity

@GC,

I have a couple of these (not S&J):
http://www.spear-and-jackson.com/product/hooks-and-slashers/spear-jackson-heavy-duty-single

Occasionally take when we walk dogs to cut back brambles etc overgrowing trails/paths we walk. Very effective for fast cutting.

@tomo,

Rakes, garden forks and secateurs inflict nasty wounds to face, feet & hands. Then there's chain-saws...

Not forgetting: kitchen, DIY, garage etc tools.

As you say, they're crackers - consuming drugs they've seized?