The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has obtained warrants for the arrest of two Malaysians allegedly involved in smuggling luxury vehicles into Thailand -- an investigation sparked by a fire on a car transporter trailer last year in Nakhon Ratchasima province.
Luxury cars are destroyed after the transporter trailer caught fire in Nakhon Ratchasima province on May 29, 2013. (Prasit Tangprasert)
Pol Lt Col Korrawat Panprapakorn, director of the DSI's Bureau of Special Operation, said on Wednesday the arrest warrants were issued by the Criminal Court on Oct 13. They name Ng Chee Kiong, 30, and Poh Boom Poy, 42.
It follows an investigation into a fire on a vehicle transporter carrying luxury cars in Pak Chong district of Nakhon Ratchasima on May 29, 2013. Six luxury vehicles were destroyed in the blaze.
Investigators discovered the two Malaysians had driven two of the six burned cars into Thailand, posing as tourists.
Pol Lt Col Korrawat said the incident exposed the illegal importation of fully built luxury cars into Thailand. The cars were later dishonestly registered as vehicles assembled in Thailand from imported parts, enabling the owners to avoid the 300% tariff on the vehicles and pay only a 70% tax.
Of the six burned luxury cars on May 29, one was a Bentley that had been stolen from a bonded-zone of the Customs Department, the DSI found.
Based on the database of the Department of Land Transport, there are 6,575 registered reassembled vehicles. and the DSI suspected that 1,350 of them had been actually imported as fully built units. The owners evaded the high legal tariff through the vehicles' false registration as assembled vehicles.
The tax evasion cost the state about two billion baht in lost revenue, Pol Lt Col Korrawat said.
He also said that about 500 smuggled vehicles had been stolen from the bonded-zone of the Customs Department before they were put up for auction. They included two Mercedes Benz cars that had been stolen in Malaysia.
Recently authorities told the owners of registered reassembled cars to have their vehicles examined following the exposed tax evasion scam.
Pol Lt Col Korrawat said that 215 vehicles were presented voluntarily, 163 were ordered to undergo examination and 150 others had not showed up. He said a last call would be issued, and afterwards the outstanding vehicles would be seized.