Authorities to seize mystery luxury cars
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'Temporary LPG cylinders' found in six vehicles; cause of fire being probed
The Customs Department says it will seize six luxury cars to check whether they were properly imported, after they were discovered abandoned on a trailer in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Pakchong district.
Authorities were called to the scene on Wednesday after four of the luxury cars mysteriously caught fire; however, no one has come forward to claim the vehicles.
The trailer-truck driver said he was delivering the cars to an unknown recipient in Si Sa Ket, prompting police to suspect that the owner might be using legal loopholes to register the vehicles there.
Pol Colonel Phanu Buranasiri, deputy investigative commander of Provincial Police Bureau 3, said the Customs Department had informed the provincial bureau that it would seize the six cars for further investigation.
Phanu said police would hand over the six cars to the Customs Department after forensic crime officers had finished investigating the cause of the fire and checked the chassis numbers of the vehicles to try to identify the owners.
The Customs Department would check whether the six vehicles and their parts had gone through proper customs clearance procedures.
Phanu said the truck driver, Ekkapat Wilamart, 37, testified that he had loaded the six cars onto the trailer on Rama V Road, Nonthaburi, before heading to Si Sa Ket.
Pol Maj-General Prayad Boonsri, deputy commissioner of Provincial Police Bureau 3, has instructed the Si Sa Ket Police head office to check how many luxury cars have been registered in the province over the last five years.
Phanu said police would also check whether luxury cars in the province had been registered with the proper documents.
A source from the police team investigating the case said the LPG gas cylinders found installed in the cars were put in temporarily to avoid paying the higher rate of tax for petrol-fuelled vehicles.
The cylinders would have been removed once the cars were registered and had received their licence plates, said the source, adding the cars would have required 95-octane petrol to run.
Two licence plates of the same registration number “Nor Lor 6217 BKK” were found in an envelope behind the backseat of the white Lamborghini.
Phannipa Chokbamrung, 42, whose car is registered with the number, said she was surprised to learn from news reports that copies of her licence plate were found in the car.
She said she had nothing to do with the luxury cars and was still paying monthly instalments on her own car, which she had bought in 2010.
