Net cast wider for car thieves
Nine vehicles seized as cops probe syndicate spanning Cape Town, KZN and Eastern Cape
ACAR-THEFT syndicate is being investigated for smuggling cars from Cape Town and surrounding areas to the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. This, after nine stolen cars were confiscated in Uitenhage in the last week.
The Cape Town Central Vehicle Inspection Section (VIS) has been investigating the sophisticated syndicate which, it is believed, supplies vehicles stolen in the Western Cape to Nelson Mandela Bay and as far as the Transkei region and Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal.
The nine cars confiscated in Uitenhage were stolen from Cape Town, Bellville and Stellenbosch within the last three months. The stolen vehicles include Volkswagen Polos, Hondas and two Toyota Tazz cars.
Port Elizabeth VIS Detective Warrant Officer Gerhard Weyers said they received a request from their Cape Town colleagues for help.
Their investigations led them to a second-hand car dealer in Uitenhage where they found the nine stolen cars.
The cars all had legitimate vehicle registration papers but upon investigation, officials realised the papers actually belonged to identical vehicles that had been scrapped.
“We discovered that the group buys wrecked and scrapped car parts from legit dealers who obviously by law have to sell the parts or scrapped cars with registration papers,” Weyers said.
“Once the syndicate members have the scrapped vehicles’ registration forms they steal a similar looking car and just replace the licence plates, discs and other identification marks with the legit cars’. The dealer then places the new buyer’s name as the registered vehicle owner. This person has more often than not been recruited to sell the car.
“The recruits are often not aware that they are being used to sell or transport stolen vehicles as it all appears legit. They get drawn into the network by criminals who offer them a quick few thousand rand for selling the car to someone. The average person or even a vehicle buyer would not know the car is stolen as the paper work is all legit.”
Police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Gerda Swart said that in some cases, the vehicles’ appearance had also been altered to fool the buyers.
“You can see that the VINs [vehicle identification number] engraved in the body of the car when it is manufactured have also been altered. This way if someone wants to purchase the vehicle and checks the various numbers, they all correspond. Only the experts will be able to find the differences,” she said.
Swart said that anyone caught selling or driving a stolen vehicle – whether they knew it was stolen or not – could face arrest or, at the very least, have the vehicle impounded for examination.
“Only once the vehicle has been given a complete once over by the detectives and found to be stolen, will it be impounded . . . Usually if the car is found to be stolen, detectives will trace the real owners and notify them.”
Where the vehicle owner could not be traced, it would be forfeited to the state.
“In other cases insurance has already paid out the owner, resulting in the car being handed over to the insurance company who will place it on auction to recoup lost funds,” Swart said.
Organised Crime expert and researcher Annette Hübschle said this type of vehicle theft was “fairly common” among syndicates.
“These groups usually move across provincial and national borders to avoid detection and possible arrest. They need to get rid of the stolen cars fairly quickly so you will find a very quick turn around within these syndicates. I would say that these networks are very large and sophisticated,” she said.
“Past research has also shown that the networks are so large that they do not even know the other people involved or linked to the group.
“The one group will do the spray painting, the other the changing of numbers, the other alters the papers and so on. None of these people ever see one another and even after they have been arrested they often do simply not know where the vehicles come from.”
Cape Town detectives are expected to arrive in the Eastern Cape next week to assist with tracking more vehicles.