Council taking a look at fines of $3,000 to discourage catalytic converter theft

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Calgarians unlawfully in possession of a catalytic converter might quickly see penalties as excessive as $3,000 if new laws going to a council committee this week are accredited.

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Proposed amendments to town’s enterprise licence bylaw would regulate the acquisition and sale of unattached catalytic converters, mandating that auto-wreckers and salvage collectors adhere to new processes meant to make monitoring the oft-stolen half simpler. They’d should maintain observe of the VIN, make and mannequin of the car the catalytic converter originated from, and decline gross sales the place that info will not be supplied or the half is broken.

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The modifications — to be mentioned by council’s group improvement committee Wednesday — would enable bylaw officers to take motion if anybody is present in possession of or dealing catalytic converters with out a licence, and make it simpler for Calgary police to pursue legal costs in opposition to thieves.

The beneficial advantageous for these in breach of the bylaw is $3,000, up from $1,000.

“This enhance straight displays the fee to the sufferer of the theft,” reads metropolis workers’s report.

Catalytic converter thefts steadily rising

Catalytic converters are present in car exhaust methods and are product of uncommon earth metals, price tons of of {dollars} as scrap. Thieves usually slice the gadgets from below parked autos and promote them to scrap metallic sellers.

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It’s a problem that’s victimized 1000’s of Calgarians, and it’s turning into extra frequent. Catalytic converter thefts have been steadily rising since 2020 and have been up 16 per cent within the first quarter of 2023 in comparison with the primary quarter of 2022, in accordance with town.

The transfer is in step with the desires of Ward 14 Coun. Peter Demong, who in January tabled the unanimously accredited movement for workers to look into the matter, to have fines hefty sufficient to mandate a courtroom look for offenders.

‘We don’t purchase them’: Safeguards already in place for some scrap sellers

Scrap sellers and different locations the gadgets are recurrently offered are conscious of the problem, and a few have already got safeguards — just like these town is seeking to mandate — in place to stop the acquisition of stolen components. Massive Home Converters, one of many metropolis’s foremost consumers of catalytic converters and different scrap metals, already requires sellers to supply the VIN of each converter they buy, in accordance with its web site.

Provincial laws launched in 2020 requires sellers of scrap metallic to supply ID and mandated scrap metallic sellers to report sure forms of transactions, together with catalytic converters. It additionally forbade money transactions and established a database of sellers.

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Jeffrey Allan, proprietor of Calgary Scrapman Ltd., which has been working within the metropolis for greater than 25 years, says he merely stopped shopping for catalytic converters roughly 4 years in the past because the commerce grew to become extra precarious — and rife with stolen items.

“I get a lot of requires them, however we don’t purchase them,” he mentioned. “The calls I get are all the time at nighttime or weekends … And then you definately (would) have the police present up Monday morning to come back and take them as a result of the man was a thief or one thing.”

Metropolis, police labored collectively on proposed options

The town says it labored carefully with the Calgary Police Service to develop the proposed amendments, and the power is supportive of the change. Police and town’s enterprise licensure workplace have been participating companies on the proposed modifications.

In December, Calgary police launched a partnership with some automotive restore retailers to have figuring out numbers, such because the car’s VIN, engraved onto catalytic converters in an try to make stolen ones simpler to determine. The town says Kal Tire accomplished 1,500 etchings in Calgary throughout the span of two months and is exploring launching this system nationally.

If endorsed by committee on Wednesday, the amendments would nonetheless want approval from council at a future assembly.

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