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Novel car racket busted after owners complain
The Mount Lavinia Police have busted a racket involving the stealing of vehicles from rent-a-car services in Colombo and its suburbs.
The first complaint to reach the Police involved a Prado jeep that had been given for Rs. 50,000 per month to a rent- a -car service in the area. The owner had complained that one month after she leased the vehicle; the rent-a-car service had informed her that the vehicle had been stolen.
Another complaint had come shortly afterwards from the owner of Toyota Belta car that he had leased the car to a rent-a-car service and his car had been reported stolen. When Police began investigations, they had got information that a money lender in the Ratmalana area had in his house three vehicles that were reported stolen. When he was questioned, he had revealed he had given Rs. 1.1 million to a man for the three vehicles which had been mortgaged to him.
.The money lender’s information had led them to the arrest of a man who is a resident-a habitual gambler- of the Kollupitiya area,. He used fake identity cards to rent vehicles from rent-a -car services and would then keep them as surety and borrow money. For a vehicle valued at Rs. 3 million he would borrow around Rs. 500,000. If he won handsomely from gambling, he would pay back the money redeem the vehicle and again mortgage the vehicle when he needed money. The lenders of the money too had been aware of the ongoing racket.
The man had been picked up from a casino in the Kollupitiya area. He had been engaged in the racket for more than one and a half years. Along with him, three others were arrested. In all, Police have so far recovered 15 vehicles including the stolen Prado from the Kadawatha area, three other vehicles found abandoned in the Makola area and eight from the Battaramulla area.
The gang had operated in areas such as Kurunegala, Galewela, Kohuwela, Nugegoda and Panadura areas as well, investigations have revealed. SI Kumara Nalawansa of the Mount Lavinia Police Crimes Division who headed the investigations said that five more suspects are absconding.
Members of the public who believe they are victims of this racket have been asked to contact the Mount Lavinia police and identify their vehicle from those that have been found.
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