DSI swoops on 10 stolen supercars smuggled in from Britain

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has found 10 of 42 mostly luxury cars that were stolen and then smuggled into Thailand from Britain with the search for the others still ongoing, DSI deputy chief Korrawat Panprapakorn said yesterday.

The British National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) contacted the DSI seeking help with locating the missing cars. The DSI has already found 10 of them by checking the engine numbers on registered imports, Pol Lt Col Korrawat said.

Of these, one Audi Q7 S-line was found parked in a showroom. The list includes three BMW M4 models — two had already been sold to customers and one was still in the showroom.

In addition, the DSI located a Honda Civic GT racing car, a green Lamborghini Huracan Spyder and a Mercedes Benz G350 at various showrooms, the DSI deputy chief said. The other three cars were Porsches: a Cayenne that had been sold and two Boxsters, one of which was found in a dutyfree zone.

The DSI are now tracking down suspects involved in the theft of the Huracan Spyder, which was shipped from Britain to Thailand via Italy, Pol Lt Col Korrawat said.

A team from the NaVCIS will visit Thailand soon to give the DSI evidence and information on a car theft ring believed to be operating here and in Britain, he said.

The DSI will allow the buyers of the stolen cars to keep them provided they sign a contract vowing to immediately hand them over to investigators if necessary, he added.

He warned people to beware of figures claiming they can lobby for the DSI to return seized cars after a man identified as Akkharaphon Sapphunpathom was arrested earlier and charged for pretending to be a DSI official demanding bribes for making such promises.

The 42 cars stolen from Britain includes: two Audis, seven BMWs, a Ferrari, a Fiat, a Ford, three Hondas, a Lamborghini, a Land Rover, two Range Rovers, a Lexus, eight Mercedes, a Mini Cooper, three Nissans, six Porsches, two Rolls-Royces and two Volkswagens.

When asked why the Customs Department had approved the import of many luxury cars with such alarmingly low declared prices, its director-general Kulit Sombatsiri said officials were not aware of their true value.

The department checked the invoices and followed standard practice in complying with the General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs (GATT) customs valuation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), he said.

But after the department recently began verifying the declared prices of imported supercars, imports dropped dramatically this year compared to recent years, he added.

In the case of cars that are believed to have been stolen in another country and then smuggled into Thailand using counterfeit documentation, Mr Kulit said the department has started implementing measures to intercept them when they arrive.

He said that on occasions a car is seized for inspection from an auction organised by the department itself and subsequently found to have been stolen and falsely declared at the time of import, he said.

In one previous case, two cars were returned to the Malaysian embassy after the DSI found evidence proving that their prices had been falsely declared, he added.

Meanwhile, DSI chief Paisit Wongmuang said that two series of raids were carried out on May 18 and May 24. As a result, a total of 160 cars were seized for inspection on suspicion of being falsely declared with low prices in a bid to avoid Thailand’s high import taxes.

These cases alone cost the country more than 3 billion baht in lost tax revenue, he said.