Edition 7
(186)
www.thecourier.es
Friday, September 12, 2014
ONE CAREFUL OWNER
Guardia reveal full scale of car scam
By ALEX TRELINSKI
The Guardia Civil says that a Torrevieja car dealership may have ripped off at least 200 buyers over the last three years by knock ing off up to 246 thou sand miles from sec ond hand cars. The doctored vehicles were then sold to mainly eld erly people and foreign nationals, including British people in the area. It’s the latest development in a long standing investigation, Operation Masina, which The Courier reported on dur ing the summer. Car dealers were raided across Spain, including the one owned by a Romanian man in Torrevieja, which was closed down by the authorities in July. The Guardia say that locally, they have received around 70 complaints from angry customers, with the Romanian and his son(iden tified as IC and CC and aged 58 and 36 respective ly) being arrested in Torrevieja along with their
Spanish manager(identified as CMGR and aged 50). 12 other people have been charged nationally under Operation Masina with for gery and conspiracy on the charge sheet, including the tampering of car speedome ters along with the produc tion of fake car documenta tion. The Guardia were brought in to investigate a complaint over a second hand car back in January which had been bought and then sold
on by the accused Torrevieja dealership. After initial investigations, they found there was substance to the complaint over a “rigged” speedometer and the Guardia spread their net fur ther to find other clients who suspected that something was up, with serious safety concerns for the “older” vehicles as well as speedometer tampering. The authorities raided two car dealership premises in Torrrevieja, as well two homes in Quesada and
Torrevieja in addition to industrial buildings in Almoradi, where the vehi cles were resprayed with a new colour and “main tained”, as well as having their speedometers clocked back. The Guardia say that the facilities in Almoradi were used when the dealer ship had bought a vehicle, and the necessary work was done there. By comparing notes with the official ITV inspection records, officers found that the average reduction on the clock for each vehicle was around 140 thousand kilometres, with several cases getting above the 200 thousand kilometre mark. The cars were intended for individual sales after being mainly obtained from rental firms; or from people who used them as company cars or taxis, all of which would have clocked up a high mileage, including from countries outside of Spain. The Guardia confirmed that Operation Masina is still active, and that more people who have been sold “doc tored” cars may well be making contacted with them.
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