Car thieves now into producing fake blue books

Criminals have now upped their game of defrauding members of the public, they are producing fake car registration books which they use to sell stolen vehicles to unsuspecting victims.

What the thieves do is target car rental businesses, reach an agreement with business owners that they will return the borrowed vehicles on agreed dates, they then go out to sell the vehicle to an interested buyer.

Before advertising that the car is for sale, thieves produce fake car registration documents with their names or faked names as first time owners. They then produce the documents to a buyer and the vehicle is often sold at very low or reduced prices.

When advertising the cars, the thieves claim to be in desperate need of money and need the car to be bought as soon as possible. A convinced buyer will then make payment and get the registration book.

It is only when the buyer goes to the Department of Road Transport and Safety (DRTS) for change of car ownership that they get alerted that the registration book they are holding is not legit.

For those who delay changing ownership names, they get tracked down by car rentals owners who would have spent days wondering why their cars were not being returned to them by the borrower as agreed and no communication made whatsoever.

Mogoditshane Police Station Commander, Boemo Bok says he is aware of the new crime trend. He is already investigating two cases where two people were robbed of their hard earned monies by thieves who pretended to be selling them vehicles using fake registration books.

“We are aware of such, crime is getting sophisticated daily, one victim paid them P25 000 and the other around P17 000. One of them says after paying the thief, the car would not start the next day, he was found by the car owner stuck not knowing what to do with it.

When the car owner asked who he was and what business he had with his car, the ‘new owner’ claimed the car was his as he had bought it and presented the fake documents to him. The owner would then break it to him that the reason the car would not start is because he had locked it through a car tracking unit which he installed in the car,” shared Bok. He went on to share that in another incident, the thief told an interested buyer that he needed to sell his car because he had to pay Magadi (dowry) for his girlfriend, claiming that elders were on his case as he had failed to raise enough money yet the wedding day was in a few days.

Bok advices Batswana to be vigilant and not make any rushed decisions when purchasing cars. He advised that buyers should always find ways of checking if the information they are being given is legit and the seller traceable.