RACE TO CLOSE STOLEN SPORTS CARS PIPELINE
Thai authorities seize 120 supercars after request for help from Britain
BANGKOK weeks. At least 120 top-of-therange sports cars have been seized, including some identified as stolen from Britain.
Investigators said they had also uncovered an array of scams and loopholes that dealers and corrupt Customs officials exploited to circumvent high taxes the kingdom places on supercars — usually around 328 per cent.
“More than 1,000 supercars are implicated in the undervaluing scam,” Lieutenant Colonel Korawat Panprapakorn, the officer leading the investigation said.
“This practice has been going on for a long time.”
Britain is the most popular source for luxury car imports to Thailand because both countries drive on the left side of the road.
While Thailand’s economy has been slumping in recent years, its billionaire-class is doing just fine, and gleaming supercars remain a common sight on the streets here — even if they spend much of their time crawling along the city’s gridlocked streets.
Lamborghinis appeared to be a top choice, making up 32 of the 122 seized vehicles, according to Thailand’s Special Investigations Department (SID).
The tax evasion scams ranged from impressively creative to bizarrely simple.
At least two vehicles were allegedly shipped over from the United Kingdom in parts and assembled in Thailand to avoid the triple tax rate.
Eight Lamborghinis were simply declared as being the cheaper Gallardo model when they were in fact the much more expensive Aventador.
Customs officers either did not notice or deliberately turned a blind eye to the easy-to-spot error. But, in the vast majority of cases, dealers under-declared the true value of the cars, often by tens of thousands, to pay less tax, SID said. It said 30 businesses were being investigated.
The outright stolen vehicles were whisked abroad through a different scam. Sources with knowledge of the investigation in Britain said most of the cars were bought on finance and shipped to Thailand. When the vehicles were at sea, the owners reported them stolen and stopped paying the monthly repayments.
Britain’s Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service confirmed it was working with Thai police to track the vehicles.
“To date 38 (stolen) UK vehicles, identified by their engine and chassis numbers and valued at over £2.3 million (RM12.4 million) have been imported into Thailand,” the agency said. AFP