Gardai Alert Car Seller To Well Organised Scam

A lucrative car scam is being committed across west Dublin and north Kildare gardai have confirmed.

An unknown fraudster is buying cars using counterfeit bank drafts and then selling them for cash.

The unsuspecting victims have already lost a total of €130,000 since the scam was first discovered six months ago.

15 cars have been bought and sold through the scam although gardai have managed to recover 14 of these.

The well-organised operation involves the use of innocent drivers who are hired as couriers.

The fraudster targets owners who are selling their cars on internet sites.

Negotiations are usually protracted, which is thought to allow time for the fraudster to line up a subsequent buyer for the car.

The initial buying of the vehicle has always happened on a Thursday evening or a Friday, with an innocent courier handing over a counterfeit bank draft, which then cannot be checked by the bank until Monday morning.

In the meantime, the vehicle is sold on to an unsuspecting buyer for cash.

The couriers have been drivers legitimately looking for work who have been recruited through job websites, such as jobs.ie.

The driver is then paid around €200 to collect a counterfeit bank draft from a hotel reception desk and then take it to the seller.

The courier then returns the car keys to a hotel reception.

A second courier is then used to collect the car keys and leave the car at an agreed location, collecting cash from the unsuspecting buyer.

The cash is then left in an agreed location.

Some taxi drivers have also been used to deposit an envelope containing the forged draft at the hotel.

"It's very simple, but also very effective," gardai said last night. "At no stage does the fraudster come into direct contact with the buyers, sellers or couriers and he never features on CCTV footage at the selected hotels.

"And by the time the victims realise they have been stung, he has disappeared and cannot be traced."

Det Sgt Finbarr Garland, who is in charge of the force's stolen vehicles unit, has appealed to taxi drivers who have been offered money to make a delivery to a hotel reception desk to contact the gardai.

Investigating officers have already compiled a shortlist of likely suspects.

(H)