Sydney, Australia – 3 November, 2008:
- The largest ever police bust of stolen motor vehicles in Taiwan in late October has proven the value of an Australian company’s technology in fighting crime.
- In Taiwan, the Government has legislated for mandatory ‘whole of vehicle marking’ of cars since 2005 and more than one in three of these vehicles are spray-marked with
DataDotDNA (microdots), a technology produced by Sydney-based DataDot Technology. - DataDot’s chief executive, Mr Ian Allen, said that Taiwanese police had been in touch with the company and engaged it’s service to assist with the forensic examination of some the more than 6,000 major components from almost 1,000 stripped cars. The police produced photographic evidence that thieves had been unable to locate and remove the microdots.
- “Even though Dots are fitted to 40 per cent of the new car fleet in Taiwan, only a small percentage of those stolen cars were fitted with DataDots,” Mr Allen said. “ This demonstrates the most important feature of Dots – deterring the thief from stealing those models.” “Importantly, though, where cars were stolen which had been marked with DataDots, police were able to use the dots to establish the identity of ‘donor’ cars and tell us they now expect this to lead to successful convictions.”
- DataDots are tiny microdots (1 mm) that are laser etched with multiple lines of code. The dots are illuminated by a Black light. The unique code for motor vehicles in Taiwan is the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) as allocated by the car manufacturers. While the microdots can be used for identification, vehicles that have been spray-marked
also carry large decals saying they are ‘DataDot protected’, as a theft deterrent. Mr Allen said many other vehicles recovered in the bust had been fitted with several adhesive labels to comply with the mandatory marking legislation, but police had provided photographs showing that, unlike the thousands of tiny DataDots on a given car, the labels
were easily removed. - Mr Allen said he understood that Taiwanese people whose vehicles were marked with DataDots – with decals showing that their vehicles are protected – were also enjoying reduced insurance premiums.
MEDIA ENQUIRIES: Ian Allen, Chief Executive, DataDot Technology, +61 416 240 621
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