Dozens of supercars, including Lamborghinis, Porsches and BMWs, have been stolen from the streets of Britain and shipped to Thailand in a complex scam that police from both countries are rushing to dismantle.
Sparked by a UK request to retrieve the lifted vehicles, detectives in Bangkok last month launched a series of raids against dealers.
More than 120 top-of-the-range sports cars have since been seized, including some identified as stolen from Britain.
Thai investigators said they have also uncovered an array of scams and loopholes that dealers and corrupt customs officials exploit to circumvent eye-watering taxes the Southeast Asian kingdom places on supercars — usually about 328 percent.
“More than 1,000 supercars are implicated in the undervaluing scam,” said Thai Lieutenant Colonel Korawat Panprapakorn, the officer leading the investigation. “This practice has been going on for a long time.”
Britain is the most popular source for luxury car imports to Thailand, because both countries drive on the left-hand side of the road.
Lamborghinis appear to have been a top choice, making up 32 of the 122 seized vehicles, according to the Thai Department for Special Investigations (DSI).
The tax evasion scams ranged from impressively creative to bizarrely simple.
At least two vehicles were allegedly shipped over from the UK in parts and then assembled in Thailand to avoid the triple tax rate.
Eight Lamborghinis were simply declared as being the cheaper Gallardo model when they were the much more expensive Aventador.
However, in the vast majority of cases dealers under-declared the true value of the cars, often by tens of thousands of US dollars, to pay less tax, the DSI said.
The outright stolen vehicles were whisked abroad through a different scam.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation in Britain said most of the cars were bought on finance and shipped to Thailand.
When the vehicles were at sea, the owners reported them stolen and stopped the repayments.
Britain’s National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service confirmed it was working with Thai police to track the vehicles.
“To date 38 [stolen] UK vehicles, identified by their engine and chassis numbers and valued at over ￡3 million [US$3.8 million] have been imported into Thailand,” the agency said.” Seven of the thirty-eight vehicles identified were seized by the DSI from a used car dealership in Bangkok.”
Those seven were found during a police raid on STT Auto in Bangkok’s Ekkamai District.
The dealership’s owner, Indharasak Techaterasiri, told reporters he was baffled that the cars were reported stolen.
He said he imports 500 to 600 luxury vehicles per year from Britain and that his shipping agent always checks the UK’s vehicle registry databases to ensure the cars are not stolen.
“They keep saying on the news that all these cars are stolen, that I am a criminal ... it isn’t fair for me,” he said, adding that he rejects any allegation of impropriety and is happy to be interviewed by British police.
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