02 August 2006  NZ Drivers invalidating their insurance
Drivers in New Zealand have been flocking to register their cars as hearses, in an effort to reduce their road tax bill it was recently revealed.

The issue came to light after a number of people admitted live on a New Zealand radio call-in show that they had registered their cars as non-commercial hearses.

Drivers in New Zealand ordinarily have to pay around £60 in road tax, whereas registered hearses pay just £19, however, drivers who make a false registration could be invalidating their motor insurance policy.

Transport authority is now taking steps to clamp down on the registration of vehicles to stop this fraud, having so far uncovered 40 fake vehicle registrations in the non-commercial hearse category.

Spokesman for Land Transport New Zealand, Andy Knackstedt, told the Associated Press there are currently around 1,500 vehicles registered as non-commercial hearse/ambulances, but he was unable to say how many were fake.

"People are committing an offence when they do this and could be putting their insurance policy in jeopardy," Mr Knackstedt said.

One woman admitted that she had registered her car as a "noncommercial hearse used to carry dead animals" but by this she meant frozen chicken from the supermarket.


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