Police recover 45 stolen vehicles

DURBAN has come under the spotlight as the “home” of hijacked or stolen vehicles that have been cloned and sold to unsuspecting community members.

A two-week operation led by the police’s Vehicle Crime Investigation Unit together with the Insurance Crime Bureau, aimed at tracking stolen vehicles, recovered about 45 vehicles, making it the biggest recovery of its kind when considering the short period it was conducted over.

Cloning a vehicle is the equivalent of identity theft. Cloning refers to a copy of a car that was legally bought and registered.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Thulani Zwane said most of the vehicles were recovered in Durban and surrounding areas.

Zwane said the unit had embarked on a project to trace and recover stolen and hijacked vehicles. The operation began on June 24 and ended last Friday.

He said those who were found with the vehicles may have a case to answer.

“It will depend on the explanation they give. If you bought the car and thought everything was above board, that is acceptable. But if you bought it knowing full well that the car had been stolen, you will face the full might of the law.”

Zwane said the total value of the recovered vehicles was estimated at about R3.5 million. One suspect had been arrested, and more arrests were expected. He said that during the operation police identified several vehicles that had had their identification numbers changed, and were then reintroduced into the eNatis System by vehicle crime syndicates. They were then sold. Hugo van Zyl of the South African Insurance Crime Bureau said a high percentage of cloned vehicles recovered in KZN were originally stolen and/or hijacked in the province.

Statistics

“According to statistics of the SAPS, KZN ranks as the province with the second-highest reporting rate on vehicle crime.”

He said cloned vehicles were often sold to members of the public who might have suspected something was wrong, but because the vehicle came with a log book and a bargain price, decided to buy it.

KwaZulu-Natal Acting Provincial Commissioner, Major-General Bheki Langa, said these operations would be conducted more regularly.

“Members of the community are warned not to collude with these criminals by buying vehicles that have been cloned,” he said.

“While there might be cases where cloned vehicles are sold to unsuspecting people, we are also aware that in many cases members of the public are aware of these dodgy practices and buy the vehicles for a fraction of their value.”