Army man rents 12 luxury cars, then sells them to used car dealers
A former army sergeant came up with a creative – and illegal – way to pay off some debt. He allegedly rented 12 luxury cars and then forged paperwork to sell the borrowed vehicle to car dealers. The sergeant has now been arrested by the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) yesterday and faces charges of fraud, counterfeiting, and using counterfeit official documents.
The man had managed to rent 12 high-end automobiles with a combined value of about 76 million baht and then work with partners to sell the vehicle to various used car dealers. The CSD has already spoken to three of the car rental services that were victimized and filed complaints after the vehicles that the man rented were never returned, and he could not be found anywhere.
The CSD says that the army sergeant would look into a car’s ownership and details in advance before he would use a partner who could create the appearance of financial stability to meet with the car rental services and hire the luxury cars. They would then use the information from their earlier research to create falsified paperwork that listed themselves as the owner, enabling them to sell the car.
The commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau says they have now recovered nine out of the 12 luxury cars rented and then sold off. They are now investigating whether any of the car dealers who purchased the luxury rental vehicles from the man were complicit in the crime or had any idea that the documents were faked and that he did not own the cars he was selling. The commissioner suggested that some of the luxury cars may have already been sold on the black market.
When the man was arrested, he said that he used part of the profits from this scheme to repay debts incurred from a previous scheme. His bank account was found to be empty, but the transaction history showed about 200 million baht of money being moved around.
He had allegedly taken investments from up to 50 people, bilking them out of about 15 million baht for a bogus business that he promised the investors 5% monthly interest on. Twenty-one of those people filed complaints with the Economic Crime Suppression Division, saying that they had been swindled out of their money.
SOURCE: Thai PBS World
