Gardaí probe car dealership over links to burglary gang

A LEADING Dublin car dealership is under Garda investigation for allegedly selling cars with false ownership details to a notorious burglary gang, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.

The dealership sold cars on to another car dealer, a foreign national, who in turn sold vehicles to well-known criminals. These cars were later used in a series of burglaries in the southeast.

The gang involved, from Tallaght in Dublin, have since been charged with several burglaries using these falsely registered vehicles.

The Mail understands that gardaí have quizzed the owners of the car dealership about how the criminals were registered under false names as the owners of the cars.

Detectives have also quizzed the foreign national. He provided the fake names and addresses to the major car dealer to register.

A senior source said: ‘This car dealership sold cars, via a third party, to this gang. The dealership registered these cars to fictitious persons with false addresses.

‘This allowed the gang to drive around in these cars, evading arrest and detection when their car registrations were detected, as the cars were not registered to them.

‘But gardaí caught up with them eventually and the spotlight is now on the dealership for selling them on and possibly deliberately registering them falsely. ‘This investigation is live.’ An Garda Síochána are battling to contain at least six major gangs who are using the roads network to target vulnerable people in rural Ireland in burglaries.