Beware of fraudulent Japanese car dealers |24 July 2021

PS Mangroo and Mr Barrack during yesterday’s interview (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Recently, several fraud cases relating to the importation of cars from Japan have been brought to the attention of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Trade.

Principal secretary for trade, CilliaMangroo, has launched an appeal to members of the public,cautioning them to be very careful when dealing with agencies from Japan. She was talking during an interview yesterday at Liberty House in the presence of Paul Barrack, commissioner of customs.

“The law is clear about the importation of cars, but still some people were abusing it in the past. After they have already imported their cars then they look for an import permit. They were putting pressure on the government to release their permit. But as of now this will not be tolerated.Before importing a car or any other goods, one has to have a permit or else the goods will be confiscated,” PS Mangroo noted.

She is urging the public to verify with the trade department first to see if their car dealers are legitimate and authentic before even transferring money.

“Unfortunately many people have transferred the full amount for their carsand there are cases where the buyers did not receive the car or got a completely different car. All cases will be looked into on a caseby case basis and we will be strict with all the deals,” Ms Mangroo explained.

She noted that some cases are currently under investigation.

On the portal of the Embassy of Japan, reports received of problems related to importation of used vehicles to Seychelles from Japan through internet transactions are also published. These are cases where importers have transferred money to entities that claim to be authentic second-hand vehicle dealers in Japan but the latter have failed to ship the vehicles after receiving payment. 

“The Embassy of Japan wishes to advise those who encounter difficulties while going through the process of importing a car and suspect there is fraud involved tofile a report with the Seychelles police.  The Japanese police will conduct investigations in good faith to crackdown on such fraud cases based on the requests and reports received from the Seychelles police through the International Criminal Police Organisation (ICPO). The investigations, however, do not always guarantee that the desired outcome is obtained,”stated the notice.
 The Embassy of Japan also wishes to advise prospective buyers to exercise caution when entering into online purchase transactions by exercising due diligence to verify the current operating status of the exporters to avoid falling into any kind of trap.

Some Japanese second-hand vehicles dealers are aware of the problem and are taking voluntary preventive actions. In an effort to ease the process of identifying vehicle exporters, a private industrial association‒the Japan Used Motor Vehicles Exporters Association (JUMVEA www.jumvea.or.jp) ‒is where prospective individual buyers of used vehicles from Japan may find the JUMVEA members’ list useful, though the Embassy of Japan is not in a position to guarantee the authenticity of each member.

Paul Barrack, commissioner of customs, hassaidinstead of blaming the institutions, people only need to abide by the laws and do everything lawfully.

“We are not here to act maliciously againstanyone. Please do some research on the company/dealer you want to do business with and contact us for any clarification,” he advised.

VidyaGappy