Odometer fraud: Police interrogate car dealers behind mileage tampering scam

The directors of two car dealerships - Rokku Autodealer in Għaxaq and Tal-Qasab Autosale in Santa Venera – who are facing allegations of odometer tampering have been questioned by the police.

The Times of Malta reported three directors behind the auto dealerships were interrogated by the police’s Rokku Autodealer in Għaxaq and Tal-Qasab Autosale in Santa Venera, and were later realised on police bail. They are suspected of fraud and money laundering.

Sources close to the investigation said police are mulling charging the three men in the coming weeks, but insisted the investigation is a complex one.

In an exclusive report, MaltaToday revealed how hundreds of consumers have been sold second-hand Japanese cars with tampered mileage gauges, in a racket involving at least two car dealerships – Rokku and Tal-Qasab.

Cars bought from Japanese bidding markets on the cheap because of their high mileage, would then be sold in Malta – however these had their odometers tampered to show low mileages.

An exercise carried out by MaltaToday on a sample of 18 cars flagged by multiple industry sources, revealed discrepancies ranging between 30,000km and 130,000km between the original mileage and the one registered in Malta.

READ ALSO | Used car scam: JEVIC working with regulators to ‘minimise fraud’

Sources indicated that at least two car dealers were using the services of a garage in San Gwann to tamper with the odometer, and then falsify documentation issued by the Japan Export Vehicle Inspection Centre (JEVIC), to dupe consumers into believing the second-hand car they are being sold is of low mileage.

Crucially, industry sources told MaltaToday that the racket starts the moment the cars arrive in Malta: when they are offloaded at Laboratory Wharf in the Grand Harbour, the police have to fill in the Vehicle 5 (VEH 005) customs and police inspection form.

The manual form contains several fields, including one where the car’s dashboard mileage is listed.

However, it appears that dealers often use the excuse that the car battery has been drained throughout their voyage at sea on the cargo ship, preventing the dashboard mileage from being read by the inspecting police officers.

In these instances, the inspector leaves the mileage field blank so that the dealer can fill it in later, when the car is restarted using a booster. Sources indicated that although there may be genuine cases of car batteries that fall flat, many times these would have been disconnected by the dealer.

READ ALSO | Dealers in used car racket: Silence and denials

The blank field allows rogue dealers to write down the tampered mileage at a later stage.

Following the MaltaToday investigation, Transport Malta increased its scrutiny of documentation presented by car dealers who import used vehicles from Japan.

The regulator has stepped in to supplant a process previously manned by police officers, to verify the mileage declared in documentation from importers, with data available in JEVIC databases.

Following MaltaToday’s investigation, a number of duped customers had come forward with their story. A couple who wished to remain anonymous had each bought a Mazda Demio from Tal-Qasab, but when comparing the original JEVIC certificate to the log book de

tails, they found a discrepancy of 51,000km and 25,000km respectively.

Another customer who reached out to this newspaper said he was sold a Toyota van that was advertised at 98,470km by Rokku Autodealer. The JEVIC data base showed that in fact the truck actually had 266,751km on it – a discrepancy of almost 170,000km.

Farrugia said the logbooks and other vehicle documentation connected to the case are in the process of being replaced and updated according to the actual mileage. “TM has sent a letter to anyone affected to inform them of this,” he said.

The minister also said the transport authority has continued to collaborate with the police in their inquiries.

Despite details revealed in the press, the two auto dealerships continue to operate.