Identity of cars switched, court hears

Subaru cars stolen in Auckland were given new identities and resold by Penrose-based mechanics, the Crown alleges.

Three Access Sub Spares employees are accused of running the scam which included unroadworthy "test" Subarus being imported from Japan and passed off to the Land Transport Safety Authority as genuine imports.

Access' company director, George Wright, his auto-mechanic son, Taras Wright, and another company mechanic, Matthew Mayne, appeared for a depositions hearing in the Auckland District Court yesterday.

The trio allegedly re-identified stolen Subarus delivered by a well-known car thief between 1999 and July 2000 then on-sold them to unsuspecting members of the public.

Access' co-director, Rex Coubray, is serving a 2 1/2-year prison term for his role in the scam and yesterday testified against his former colleagues.

Coubray described how one man bought his 1998 Subaru Impreza from the company only to have it stolen six days later while he was at dinner with Taras Wright.

The car turned up at Access' Penrose yard several months later where the defendants allegedly replaced the engine, changed its external appearance and resold it.

On another occasion a stolen 1999 Subaru Legacy worth $55,000 was stored at George Wright's home and later stripped for parts to repair a damaged model that the company had imported from Japan.

Crown prosecutor Mark Woolford said police had recovered 14 stolen Subarus worth more than $450,000 since raiding the company's premises last July.

In some cases the vehicles had been re-identified and sold to the public, and others had been chopped up and used for parts to update other Subarus.

The Crown also alleges the men imported unroadworthy "test" cars from Japan and forged documentation so they could be registered and driven here.

Coubray said yesterday that Taras Wright frequently flew to Japan and arranged for at least 40 test cars to be imported.

The vehicles had been kept aside by the manufacturer in Japan to test assembly quality and were never intended to be driven on public roads.

Their chassis numbers had been cut from their firewalls to prevent them from being sold and they were supposed to be sent to wreckers' yards for destruction.

However, Access managed to buy them for as little as $1500 and then re-identify them by swapping chassis numbers and firewalls from other stolen and damaged vehicles. Coubray said the paperwork needed to register the test cars as legitimate imports was then forged, with 20 Subarus having fooled the LTSA and sold to New Zealand motorists.

The depositions hearing, before two justices of the peace, is scheduled to run until Friday.