Customs cracks down on hot cars
There’s an old saying that if a deal looks too good to be true then it probably is. But that piece of conventional wisdom has not stopped dozens of Belizeans from buying late model Cherokees, Durango’s and other luxury SUV’s for rock bottom prices. The catch of course, is that the vehicles are of suspicious pedigree. In fact they’re stolen…and after a chorus of complaints from legitimate car dealers, the Customs Department is finally taking some action.
Pie Marin, Belize Diesel and Equipment Ltd.
“Buying a new car at $20,000, something is wrong. And at the end of the day, you’re risking the money and losing it.”
But apparently, that’s a risk some Belizeans are willing to take.
One local auto dealer says importing a set of wheels without paying duty is relatively easy.
Albert Leslie, Belcan Auto Dealers
“It’s very easy because you know you could bring a vehicle, leave it in Chetumal, get the VIN number from over here. Take it to Chetumal; put it on over there, put on some Belize license plates, maybe it could be from an old vehicle that they already had licensed. A Cherokee is licensed, an ’89 Cherokee, then just take the VIN number, put it on the ’99 and they drive it cross the border. And then you know, some people get that little under the table too.”
Mel Auil, Manager, JMA Motors
“In this day and age, one can do anything to falsify documents, to prepare vehicles, because worldwide, globally, there are a lot of things people do with vehicles. For instance, we’ve had requests from our counterparts in Guatemala to try to find out about certain missing vehicles and sometimes we find out they’ve found their vehicles way down in South Africa.”
Omar Sabido, Comptroller of Customs
“But then it is up to the customs authorities to prove otherwise, that that VIN is the VIN for that particular vehicle.”
Janelle Chanona
“How do you prove otherwise?”
Omar Sabido
“That is where the predicament comes in. That we need to then get assistance, possible even from the manufacturers of the vehicles to assist us in saying that okay fine, no we know by certain verification, codes or features that what is the true particulars of the vehicles. Once we get that, we know that something has happened. Our main concern is that at the moment is that these vehicles may be uncustomed vehicles in the sense that proper duties have not been paid, if they have been paid any at all.”
Greasing palms and cutting a few corners might seem pretty innocent, until you get caught and then you really have to pay the price.
Omar Sabido
“It could be three times the duties and possible confiscation
of the vehicle.”
Janelle Chanona for News Five.
The Customs investigation is ongoing. In addition to the six vehicles already impounded, there are others being targeted. The problem of stolen vehicles reached its height several years ago when Belize was awash with hijacked U.S. vehicles. At that time, however, the original VIN numbers were not disguised and U.S. insurance officials easily spotted the hot wheels.
