First of three parts
AFTER a waiter took the plates of unfinished coq au vin, Sarah tipped the glass to Lily and said: “I can make you rich.”
More than a month later, Lily sat not behind a dining table in a chic restaurant but in front of a cop. Lily (not her real name) told Capt. Joel D. Conde the car she loaned to Sarah has disappeared along with the person Sarah reloaned it to. It was a case of “failure to return” (FTR), Conde told the BusinessMirror, pointing to a new motor vehicle-theft case that has left the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) dumbfounded. Is this a new modus operandi by car thieves? Is this a new method by a new carnapping group?
Is ‘failure to return’ an isolated case?
WHAT was initially a good long-term investment turned out to be a wild goose chase, leaving car owners and the police stumped.
Is Sarah an accomplice or, like Lily, an unwitting victim in a rent-a-car scam involving employees of a car distributor?
According to Conde, Lily was one of 34 people who filed a case last December after a certain Sarah Martinez failed to remit money.
Based on the complaints, Martinez invited her colleagues in Toyota Alabang to lend their car to an unknown rental service.
The rates ranged from P25,000 a month for a manual-transmission sedan and P40,000 a month for a larger vehicle types.
Martinez was able to secure the confidence of 62 people who entered into “trust agreements” or deals based on trust, according to PNP-HPG P/Supt Elizabeth Velazquez.
PNP-HPG received complaints last December that a certain Sarah
Velazquez said that because of low amortization rates that Toyota offers its employees, the rental appealed to the victims. Others even offered to lend their vehicles for hire, three at a time,
she explained.
After a few months, the payments stopped coming in and Martinez admitted that she had turned over the vehicles to a certain Veronica Brequillo who had ran off with the motor vehicles. Brequillo could no longer be contacted.
Further investigation by the HPG revealed that the vehicles were illegally pawned. Over P44.04 million worth of vehicles were pinched from the 29 individuals Martinez convinced through a rent-a-car scam that transpired in 2015.
As of February 10, PNP reported to have retrieved 10 of the missing vehicles. “After one month of contract, na wala naman talagang contract, hindi na nagpakita,” Velasquez told the BusinessMirror in an interview. “’Yung car rental wala din pangalan so parang fly-by-night lang. Siguro nasilaw lang sila sa P25,000 to P40,000 a month na pangakong kikitain nila.”
Of the 62 units reported stolen, HPG only received report for 34 missing vehicles. Twenty-five of these are Toyota models. The rest were identified as of the Mitsubishi, Ford and Chevrolet brands.
As of this writing, Toyota Alabang has not responded to the BusinessMirror’s request for comments.
“If incidents have happened in the past, [we haven’t receive] comments or complaints from a customer,” said Joseph A.C. Ayllón, assistant vice president for communications of Ford Philippines Inc., adding he is unaware that any similar incident has happened to their company. “We can also vouch that our dealers are doing…the process are done with integrity and with credibility because every quarter we conduct an audit and our auditor comes from the region, sa Asia Pacific, to really check on them.” Velasquez clarified that the case filed against Brequillo is not carnapping but estafa, unless the court rules it otherwise.
Modus
ACCORDING to Velasquez, the FTR modus is the third most instigated modus operandi in the country.
Before Martinez’s case was detected, other methods of FTR include suspects who masquerade as buyers, request to test drive a car and run off with the vehicle, according to Velasquez. Others pose to rent-a-car companies as clients and, due to a lax screening process, are able to get their hands on vehicles, she explained.
The most prominent method of motor-vehicle theft, referred to as carnapping, remains to be Stolen While Parked Unattended, or SWPU, Velasquez said. She said SWPU cases make up 75 percent of the carnapping modus employed wherein suspects use different tools and speed away with the vehicle.
One of the most alarming cases include carnapping groups establishing connections with unscrupulous repair-shop mechanics or employees of car-wash shops who duplicate the key of vehicles the owner left behind.
PNP-HPG Chief Supt. Arnold D. Gunnacao said if it were up to him, he would make parking cars on the streets prohibitive to lessen carnapping rates and reduce traffic, as well.
Gunnacao said that another form of new modus operandi, which falls under FTR, involved the perpetrators availing of affordable car loans using fictitious documents.
Once the vehicle is within their possession, they sell it to unwary buyers who, in turn, bear the weight of the unpaid balance of the loaned vehicle.
“Hindi alam ng car dealers ’yun. Kapag may nag-inform lang sa kanila [that’s when they become aware of the illicit deal] kasi natunton nga namin na ganoon ’yung
modus operandi,” Gunnacao told the BusinessMirror.
GPS
DESPITE the intricacy of the new carnapping stint, Gunnacao said the global positioning system (GPS) feature installed in most cars make it easier to track stolen vehicles and identify suspects. Just last December, the HPG was able to nab members of crime syndicates in Taguig City with the use of the built-in tracking system in the GPS, he said.
Gunnacao said for 2016, he plans to eradicate carnapping syndicates, especially those in Metro Manila. He added he will see to it that car dealers are informed of the new modus that involves employees that may be working for carnapping groups.
We plan to meet with car dealers and warn them that an employee may be colluding with a scam artist or group of confidence men, Gunnacao told the BusinessMirror in Filipino. He advises car dealers to monitor employees because they process the documents for every car purchased. “That’s where the risks and temptation to commit a fraud or crime come in.”
Gunnacao said he is confident of hitting his target for this year. The PNP-HPG at present is 1,300-men- strong nationwide, he said.
We were also the main beneficiaries of new motorcycles and patrol car units the PNP bought for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last November, he said. In a media statement, PNP Chief Director General Ricardo C. Marquez said the new motor vehicles will further boost the proficiency of the PNP-HPG this 2016. To be continued
Image credits: NONIE RYES
