Motorists and mechanics caught taking shortcuts to install remote car starters by bypassing their vehicle's immobilizer will face hefty fines under an amendment to Manitoba's Highway Traffic Act, the province said on Wednesday.

An alarming trend of immobilizer tampering to more quickly and cheaply install remote starters for vehicles has been noticed, making affected cars and trucks more vulnerable to theft, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Steve Ashton said.

"Electronic immobilizers have knowingly been tampered with during installation of remote starters because it is cheaper and easier to disengage the immobilizer when installing a remote starter than to work around it, making the anti-theft devices useless," Ashton said.

"In other cases, immobilizers have been disabled or completely removed during the course of service and repairs."

The practice flies in the face of a long-standing push by Manitoba Public Insurance to crack down on auto theft by requiring vehicles to have immobilizers installed.

The public insurer said the resulting drop in auto theft since 2005 has saved ratepayers about $60 million.

Under the amended law, it would be an offence to tamper with an immobilizer device. The maximum new fine if convicted would be $5,000.

The province wants to extend the same penalty to people who remove or tamper with airbag systems in vehicles.

Ashton said "industry representatives" have noticed an issue where the safety systems are being removed from vehicles to resell them.