Toyota Land Cruiser
Gardai yesterday successfully smashed a gang of local criminals, known to detectives and believed to have already grossed six-figure profits by the selling on of “manufactured” 4×4’s falsified from stolen and crashed vehicles.
This scam, which is known in the trade as ‘Cabbing’, (Meaning something retrieved from something else.) involves the buying of crashed 4×4’s from legitimate insurance companies. The chassis and engine parts are then fitted to stolen 4×4’s previously targeted by the fraudsters, because they are of similar make, model and colour. The finished product is then sold to unsuspecting buyers on known websites.
In the past year, 180 Toyota Land Cruisers have been stolen nationwide, with only 40 being recovered.
Gardai, as part of their investigations, raided some 25 premises based in counties Tipperary, Laois and Wexford and have recovered nine 4×4’s in one search in the Portlaoise area. Gardai have also recovered five engines, a large amount of vehicle parts together with intelligence and vital information from documentation and computers records, seized in the raids.
The gang, based in the Midlands and south-east are believed to have UK links and have been operating successfully for the past 18 months.
It is expected that significant arrests will be made when further Garda inquiries are complete.
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