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12 on trial for selling rented cars worth Dh600,000 in UAE
The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court heard that the Arab men had rented the cars from different rental firms.
- PUBLISHED: Thu 13 Apr 2017, 9:00 PM UPDATED: Sat 15 Apr 2017, 8:59 AM
Twelve men accused of stealing 11 cars worth Dh600,000 from rental firms are on trial. The Arab men allegedly exported the cars, re-imported them to the UAE, and later sold them in Al Ain as new vehicles.
The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court heard that the Arab men had rented the cars from different rental firms in Abu Dhabi and Dubai for more than three days. They changed the vehicles' chassis numbers, forged their registration documents and then exported the cars to a neighbouring country. They would then later re-import the cars into the UAE with new registrations and sold them to car showrooms in Al Ain.
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Official court documents stated that one of the owners of a car rental firm in Abu Dhabi had filed a complaint with the police about a person who rented a car from his firm and never returned it.
A prosecution witness, a police officer, told the court that they had received several complaints from owners of car rental firms after some men rented their cars for about three days, and did not return them.
The defendants had allegedly paid the rental charges for the cars beforehand.
The officer said they had arrested one of the men from Dubai after investigations suggested he had rented a car from one of the complainants for three days.
"The man had already sold the car to the fourth defendant who confessed to being involved in the theft of several rental cars on the instructions of the seventh, eighth and eleventh defendants," said the policeman.
"The fourth defendant also was responsible for determining the type of cars required, after personally renting them from car rental firms or asking others to rent them. He first inspected them, making sure that their chassis numbers could be altered or changed before handing them over to the other defendants."
Police investigations revealed that the men were changing the chassis numbers of the vehicles at workshops owned by one of the defendants - located in Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah.
"The men would then forge papers for exporting the cars to a neighbouring country and later re-import the vehicles to the UAE with new documents and sell them to car showrooms in Al Ain," said a prosecution witness. One of the cars had been sold for Dh15,000.
The witness explained that the men coordinated the theft, forgery and re-sell of the stolen cars.
Police said the men had succeeded in selling off two of the cars because of a technical fault in their tracking devices, but the rest of the cars had been recovered from the persons who had bought the cars from the defendants.
All the men denied the charges of theft and forgery when they appeared in court. The trial was adjourned to a future date for the men to present their defence.
Modus operandi of the rental car 'salesmen'
Rented cars and paid rent beforehand
Determined the type of car required and check if its chasis number could be changed
They would change the chassis numbers of the vehicles at their workshop
They would then forge papers and export the cars to neighbouring country
Later they would re-import them to the UAE with new documents
They would then sell the cars to showrooms in Al Ain