MAJOR CROSS-BORDER RACKET INVOLVING STOLEN CARS NABBED
RACKET CAPABLE OF YIELDING A PROFIT IN EXCESS OF €20,000 ON A TOP-OF-THE-RANGE MOTOR JUNE 2003
A major cross-border racket involving stolen cars, estimated to be worth €500,000, is smashed by gardaí.
A file is being forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions and a number of people are expected to be charged.
The offending, which has been under investigation for a year, involves not just cars but stolen tax books, and is capable of yielding a profit in excess of €20,000 on a top-of-the-range motor.
It involves importing stolen vehicles into the Republic of Ireland, the only significant outlay for the criminals being payment of import duty which in the case of a van might be as low as €50.
Gardaí identify and recover 28 cars which have been laundered and sold through auctions, the trade or buy and sell magazines.
It results in innocent buyers being stung as the cars appear genuine with legitimate Republic registration numbers and seemingly proper documentation.
Eight people are arrested, among them five from the Dundalk area.
The probe involves guards from Carrickmacross and extends across the border as forces on both sides co-operate on a parallel scheme which also uncovers stolen English tax registration books being used to import stolen Irish vehicles into England.
The investigation is centred at Dundalk garda station under the direction of Detective Inspector Jim Sheridan and Sergeant Brian Mohan.
It is sparked by the discovery of blank tax registration books during a search of a house in Dundalk.
They are traced to a batch of 250 stolen from the vehicle licensing headquarters in Coleraine.
They are vital to the enterprise. The racketeers simply fill in the relevant details of the individual cars and vans on the blank books. Everything then corresponds, save for the altered number plate.
The process of changing the identity is complete when the vehicles are imported – the vast majority through Dundalk - and receive new Republic of Ireland registration plates.
It is a painstaking investigation which results in a bulky file prepared for the DPP.
Investigators trawl through all cars imported into the state to see if any are brought across with the stolen batch of tax books.
Over a number of months eight people are arrested, five from this locality.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland conducts a separate probe in tandem with gardaí, focussing on car thefts and how the tax books go missing.
It is understood those involved on both sides of the border are identified and the same gang is believed to be involved in a parallel racket to bring cars stolen in Ireland to England.
The vehicles involved range from BMWs to vans and lorries, all quite new, just two weeks in one case.
A top-of-the-range BMW could be sold for €30,000 and perhaps imported at a cost of €7,000 duty.
‘ Taking a very low average the profit on selling the 28 identified could be €250,000 but more likely is up to €500,000,’ reveals a garda source.