An Auckland company director has been sent to prison for 2 1/2 years for his part in a stolen car ring specialising in Subaru vehicles.
Rex Frederick Coubray, aged 40, of Bucklands Beach, earlier pleaded guilty to 18 charges of receiving, forgery and obtaining documents with intent to defraud.
The Auckland District Court heard yesterday that the operation involved importing Subaru "test" cars that were not meant for road use and had had their chassis numbers removed.
New chassis numbers were put on the cars, which were then sold. In other cases, Subarus stolen from around Auckland were registered as legitimate imports with forged chassis numbers.
Coubray's lawyer, Frank Godinet, told the court that his client had initially been an unwitting party to the offending. Coubray had invested $100,000 in the company Access Sub Spares, not realising the extent of criminal activity being conducted.
His client had given the company credibility and helped it obtain credit. Just because Coubray was a director did not mean he had been a principal offender.
In the case of the Subaru test vehicles, Coubray had thought that the cars were safe and that some were superior to those sold legitimately. He had even had one cleared for registration by a Land Transport Safety Authority-approved engineer.
For the Crown, David McNaughton said Coubray's contacts had "given the operation a level of professionalism and expertise not previously seen in New Zealand."
While Coubray was probably not the prime mover, he was directly involved in altering vehicles with forged chassis numbers.
The LTSA was seeking to remove certification from the engineer who had approved one of the test cars, because he was one of two car inspectors who had agreed to sign off each other's vehicles without looking at them.
Judge Chris Field said it was clear Coubray had played a significant role in the enterprise.
Three other men associated with Access Sub Spares have pleaded not guilty to similar charges and will reappear in court next month.
Jail for part in car ring
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