Thai Police Recover Cars Stolen in Insurance Scam

Thai police raid car showrooms in Bangkok and recover six of 42 luxury cars stolen in Britain and Italy and shipped to Thailand to be sold.

Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation says Britain’s National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service reported 41 vehicles stolen in Britain and a Lamborghini stolen in Italy.

DSI Deputy Director-General Korawat Panpraphakorn says his department has located 10 of the 42 vehicles.

The English-language Bangkok Post reports the six cars found and impounded from showrooms in Bangkok were an Audi Q7, a BMW M4, a Honda Civic GT, a Porsche Boxster, a Lamborghini and a Mercedes-Benz G350.

Korawat says another three – two BMW M4s and a Porsche Cayenne – already had been sold and a Porsche Boxster was parked in a duty-free zone of the Customs Department.

Meantime, The Nation newspaper reports British authorities told the DSI how the scam works.

The luxury cars were bought in the U.K. through car loans. Buyers paid just a few installments before shipping the cars to Thailand and lodging a car-theft report to claim insurance compensation.

The owners of the resold vehicles would have to surrender them to authorities when ordered to do so, but in the meantime they could continue to use the vehicles.

The 42 stolen vehicles included seven BMWs, three Land Rovers, eight Mercedes-Benz and two Rolls-Royce models.