We’ve tracked down your stolen Lexus, sir... to Uganda
WHEN police used a tracking device to get on the trail of a £50,000 Lexus stolen in London, they expected thieves had hidden the car somewhere in the UK.
Instead the vehicle had disappeared on a route which took detectives across the Channel, over the Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal ... and finally, after a 6,000-mile trip spanning three continents, to a field in Uganda.
There was the 4x4 – parked up alongside a fleet of 28 other luxury cars snatched from Britain and worth more than £1million.
It is believed that car smugglers particularly target right-hand drive UK vehicles because motorists in Uganda also drive on the left – part of the colonial legacy in the East African country.
Thieves are thought to have reprogrammed the keyless ignition of the Lexus before making off with it from London in April.
But because the vehicle had been fitted with a state- of-the-art tracking device the National Crime Agency was able to use a smartphone app to trace it.
The Lexus was initially tracked to Le Havre, in France, from where it was transported across the Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal to Oman on the Arabian Sea.
From there it was shipped to Mombasa in Kenya before being taken by road to the Ugandan capital Kampala inside a steel container. The lengthy police operation was able to break up the thieves’ network in Uganda and helped officers identify corrupt officials in both Kenya and Uganda.
When the Lexus was finally recovered, the cars next to it included Range Rovers, BMWs and Audis, which are all currently being returned to the UK.
NCA regional manager Paul Stanfield had traced the stolen Lexus with an app created by antifraud investigators, APU, with help from Interpol and police in Kenya and Uganda.
He said: ‘We have been able to dismantle an international criminal network that has been responsible for stealing high-value cars from the UK and exporting them to East Africa.’ So far this year, more than 40,000 vehicles have been stolen in London, a quarter with keyless technology.
Police in Kensington and Chelsea often check expensive cars after midnight, when many thefts occur.