Four nabbed for selling rental cars

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Be very careful if somebody offers you a very cheap luxury car; it just may belong to someone else.

Jakarta police said on Monday that last Friday they arrested four people for fraudulently selling or pawning at least 70 luxurious cars that they had rented from car rental companies across the capital.

Chief of the car and motorcycle thefts unit at City Police Adj. Sr. Comr. Edi Hasibuan said that they also confiscated 19 cars from the suspects' warehouse in Ciracas, East Jakarta.

"All the cars belong to three rental companies in Tangerang and Condet, East Jakarta. There are about 70 brand new luxury cars that they have sold or pawned during the last six months," he said, adding that the cars were noted brands such as BMW, Toyota and Honda.

The investigation started when one of the suspects offered a police officer a new Vios sedan for Rp 50 million (US$5,000) last week, not even half of its market price.

The suspicious officer took the information to headquarters who immediately traced the seller.

According to Edi, the group had the car rental companies' trust because they always paid rental fees several months in advance.

The group always told the car rental companies that they had an order from a company to provide cars for the company's operations.

The cars were then sold for between Rp 50 million and Rp 150 million, or pawned for between Rp 40 million and Rp 50 million.

"The car rentals didn't know that they paid them with the money the four received from selling or pawning the rented cars," Edi said.

The four suspects were charged under Articles 378 and 379 of Criminal Code on theft and fraud that carries a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison.

Meanwhile, a police officer identified as Second Brig. Wahyu Murdilianto was interrogated by city police internal affairs division for selling luxury cars without documents to an undercover colleague.

"If we find enough evidence that he was involved in selling cars without documents then we will hold a ethics hearing soon. We will recommend his dismissal," City police internal affairs chief Sr. Comr. Anwaruddin told The Jakarta Post.