Noida: Eight nabbed for selling refurbished vehicles after reporting them stolen

Noida: At least eight persons were arrested by the Noida police on Sunday for allegedly fabricating documents of commercial vehicles bought cheap, reporting them

Noida: At least eight persons were arrested by the Noida police on Sunday for allegedly fabricating documents of commercial vehicles bought cheap, reporting them as stolen and then reselling them as refurbished trucks, while defrauding finance companies,

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According to the police, the gang has been active for the past few months.

“People working with finance companies are a part of the group. They would access data of customers who were unable to pay their installments (for commercial vehicles) on time. The gang would coerce them into selling their vehicles to the gang for cheap. Then the gang would report the vehicles as having being stolen,” said additional deputy commissioner of police, zone 1, Kumar Ranvijay Singh.

Police said the gang allegedly has a contact in Bhatinda, Punjab who would provide them with fake documents for the vehicles.

“They would change the engine or chassis number and then resell these vehicles. They would obtain the documents from Punjab. This way they were defrauding finance companies as well as unsuspecting buyers who were purchasing these refurbished trucks,” said Singh.

He said that the suspect in Punjab is absconding, along with three other accomplices. The fake RCs for the vehicles were usually obtained for ₹1.5 to 3 lakh while the suspects earned a profit of ₹5 to 10 lakh on each vehicle, said police.

They were nabbed on Sunday following a tip-off from Morna. The police also recovered five trucks from them, along with several sets of fake documents and tools used to change vehicle identifiers.

Police said that most of the suspects, including the absconding ones, have a criminal history. They suspect at least 20-25 more vehicles to have been modified or reported stolen while they are searching for all cases in which the suspects have been involved.

The suspects were booked for IPC sections for cheating, forgery, counterfeiting and concealing evidence. They were produced before a magistrate and later sent to jail.