Stolen car imports hit dealers

An international crime ring is using businesses which import vehicles from Japan to unwittingly sell stolen cars.

Detective Senior Sergeant Darrin Thomson has confirmed that police are looking into a scam involving criminals stealing cars, changing their vehicle identification numbers (VINs) and then selling them to exporters in Japan.

Auckland dealer AutoZam, of Penrose, has been caught up in the scam and 18 of its customers have been told the ownership of their vehicles could be in doubt.

AutoZam Penrose director Mark Cochrane would not discuss the issue this week, saying: "I've got no idea what you are talking about."

This is despite Land Transport New Zealand sending a letter in November to the owners of 18 vehicles bought from AutoZam Penrose. The letter included Mr Cochrane's contact details.

In it Land Transport said checks had been done with the Imported Motor Vehicle Dealers Association (IMVDA) and importers to ensure vehicles met safety requirements. As a result the vehicles concerned would not lose their registration and could continue to be used, but the police investigation was ongoing.

"Therefore, although the vehicle is currently registered to you and is safe to operate, your legal ownership could become the subject of dispute."

Mr Thomson said other dealers were being looked at but declined to give details.

He did not rule out dealer involvement but said the focus was overseas.

"We're not ruling out any possibility, but the information we have ... suggests that the identity has been changed overseas, not in New Zealand."

New Zealand police had identified similar offending in South Africa and Britain.

IMVDA chief executive David Vinsen said he understood other importers - fewer than five in total - had also had vehicles they sold questioned.

He said the vehicles were "relatively expensive" and that owners of imports here should not be concerned.

"In our experience over the last 20 years of imports this sort of thing has happened occasionally," he said.

"The financial institutions in Japan are absolutely uninterested in pursuing the matter at all."

He said when agents were sent to Japan to meet the financial institutions involved in the deals they either refused to meet or expressed disinterest in following up cases.

Mr Vinsen said AutoZam had agreed to provide indemnity - security against future loss - to some buyers who asked for it.

He was confident owners would not lose their vehicles.

"I'm absolutely sure there will be no problem."

Mr Thomson agreed and said local owners being affected was a "remote possibility".

The goal was to prevent further cases.

"What we are doing is getting a picture of the modus operandi of how these people are bringing these vehicles into the country; we're trying to identify the players.

"I would not get too concerned at this stage in respect to that area.

"These people are victims, so we certainly don't want to make their situation any more traumatic or concerning than it already is."

The police were dealing with Interpol.

"The offending is, in the main, believed to have occurred offshore - Japan - so we're trying to deal with those circumstances," he said.

"It's obviously a sophisticated ring because what they've actually done is change the true identity of the car, which makes it very difficult to follow up."

He believed the scam was run by an organised crime group.

Police would work with Land Transport and groups like IMVDA to put systems in place to prevent future imports of stolen vehicles.

The scam was uncovered by a Land Transport certifier who noticed that a deregistration certificate, also known as an export certificate, issued in Japan, appeared to be counterfeit.

Land Transport spokesman Andy Knackstedt said that prompted police involvement.

"We took that document to police to verify if, indeed, it was counterfeit and they verified that it was. At that point we handed the case over to the police."

- NZPA