Luxury cars face fresh checks
Registration renewals at risk in crackdown
Luxury car owners must have their vehicles inspected by the Department of Special Investigation to avoid the renewal of their car registration being refused as the DSI steps up its crackdown on illegally imported supercars.
The latest measure is being used to support the department which is expanding its investigation into car buyers, following its operation to impound scores of suspicious cars from showrooms, cargo ships and a storehouse overseen by the Customs Department.
Deputy DSI chief Korrawat Panprapakorn said yesterday buyers who are preparing to list their cars with the Department of Land Transport must report to the DSI first because investigators have found evidence leading to the belief that “more than 1,000 luxury cars” have been imported illegally.
So far the department has classified the irregularities into two kinds — supercars stolen from Britain and shipped to Thailand, and falsified invoices that declare unusually low prices for luxury cars to avoid paying the country’s high import duties.
A DSI source, citing a 2009 probe, said yesterday some car dealers had set up their companies in Singapore to make adjustments to the invoices which would make the car prices “50 and 60% cheaper” than the actual prices.
After the fake documents were produced in Singapore the cars would be shipped from their manufacturers in Britain, Italy and Japan to Thailand, the source added.
Amid these alleged irregularities, the DSI must conduct careful checks on supercars already sold to customers besides its ongoing investigation into imported cars on display or in storehouses, according to Pol Lt Col Korrawat.
Earlier his department announced it would verify a report that a green Lamborghini, which had been bought by actor-cum-singer Pakorn Lam, might be among the illegal cars. The news drew a quick response from Pakorn who said he would prove his innocence.
As for the luxury cars reportedly stolen from Britain, the DSI has so far seized a total of 14 out of 42 vehicles for inspections, Pol Lt Col Korrawat said.
It yesterday found the latest vehicle, a British-made Land Rover (Range Rover-hybrid model), at a storehouse in the cargo clearance customs office area in Lat Krabang district, he said.
The car was shipped to Thailand in early April while its importer and storehouse caretaker are different companies, deputy Customs Department chief Chaiyut Kumkun said.
Reportedly, the importer, identified as Masters Auto-part and Service Ltd, bought the car for more than 10 million baht before renting the storehouse from JMW Motors Ltd.
On another front in the DSI-led operation, the department is considering asking Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to exercise a Section 44 order to support a legal move to claim back tax revenues the country has lost to supercar tax dodgers.
People who are to be retroactively taxed will have to pay the money back in “lump sum payments”.