Thai Customs to hand over stolen M’sian cars

BANGKOK: Thai Customs Department have recently seized 30 stolen cars, including 13 from Malaysia, worth 21.6 million Baht ( RM2.1 million) on transit to a third country.

The cars were shipped from Singapore to Thailand and declared as furniture and new cars, said Thai Customs directorgeneral Rakob Srisupaat.

Meanwhile, an official said Thailand would hand over 25 stolen vehicles to the Malaysian authorities by the end of this month.

Malaysian Ambassador to Thailand Datuk Nazirah Hussain, who was present at the press briefing, expressed her appreciation over close cooperation given by Thai authorities in curbing cross-border crimes.

Nazirah said cross-border crimes needed to be tackled through cooperation between countries as the syndicates involved usually recruited members from two or more countries.

She said close cooperation between Malaysia and Thailand had enabled more vehicles stolen from Malaysia to be traced and returned to their owners.

Although hundreds of stolen Malaysian vehicles were recovered in Thailand, the handover process runs into legal and insurance wrangle, an official said.

“To add insult to injury some of the vehicles were found to be used in criminal activities and ended up as court exhibits. Sending the vehicles home is also costly,” she added. — Bernama