Four nabbed for selling rental cars
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.