Hii tunaweza kuihamisha baadaye (Angalieni magari mnayotumia Dar):
Police smash alleged luxury car theft ring
Mar 17 2008
By Jeanette Oldham
POLICE have smashed a suspected £1.5 million car-ringing scam which involved the theft of luxury vehicles from leafy Midland areas.
Detectives uncovered the huge fraud, which echoes the hit Hollywood movie Gone In 60 Seconds. One suspect, Mponjoli Malakasuka, was arrested last year after traffic cops ran a routine check on his Mercedes and found it had been reported stolen. He lives in a £250,000 home, in Aster Way , Walsall, and tied the knot in an elaborate beach wedding in Florida in 2002.
After his arrest Mr Malakasuka, 35, was quizzed about being involved in the theft and exportation of dozens of stolen vehicles, including BMWs, Range Rovers and Aston Martins.
He has now been charged with conspiracy to steal and is due to appear at Wolver-hampton Crown Court on April 23.
Leading Midland business figures are believed to be among the victims of the gang, whose alleged crime spree ran from November 2005 to October 2007.
Cars were stolen from rural and wealthy Midland areas and then exported in sealed shipping containers to Tanzania and Kenya .
The gang is said to have employed the services of unsuspecting freight forwarders, who made arrangements with various shipping companies to export the cars.
A police source said: "Mr Malakasuka was arrested in an apparently stolen Mercedes after officers ran a PNC check on the car.
"His home was then raided and various items were recovered."
Mr Malakasuka, a Tanzanian national, is believed to have come to the UK via the US in 2004. Until his arrest, he worked for a Midland car parts company, earning between £17,000 and £20,000-a-year.
There was no answer at his four-bedroomed detached home on Friday, where a 'for sale' sign has been up for several weeks. There were no cars on the drive.
A neighbour shown a picture of Mr Malakasuka said he recognised him as the man who had lived nearby for about two years.
The theft of prestige cars is a lucrative international business.
A London-based gang arrested in 2006 was found to have been stealing 120 prestige cars a month, mostly Mercedes. They would strip them down to spare parts, pack them into containers and despatch them to Nigeria . One policeman compared their methods to "an industrial production line".
Repatriation agencies, who collect rewards for stolen cars, brought about 1,000 vehicles back to Britain in 2006.
They employ spotters in places such as Cyprus , Dubai and Spain , looking for suspicious UK-registered cars.
In recent years, overall car theft has declined in Britain . Of 180,000 vehicles stolen in 2006, 48 per cent were later recovered. The rest were scrapped for spare parts, given a false identity, or shipped abroad.
Source credit: Is this man behind the real Gone In 60 Seconds? EXCLUSIVE POLICE SMASH ALLEGED pounds 1.5M LUXURY CAR THEFT RING. - Free Online Library
Police smash alleged luxury car theft ring
Mar 17 2008
By Jeanette Oldham
POLICE have smashed a suspected £1.5 million car-ringing scam which involved the theft of luxury vehicles from leafy Midland areas.
Detectives uncovered the huge fraud, which echoes the hit Hollywood movie Gone In 60 Seconds. One suspect, Mponjoli Malakasuka, was arrested last year after traffic cops ran a routine check on his Mercedes and found it had been reported stolen. He lives in a £250,000 home, in Aster Way , Walsall, and tied the knot in an elaborate beach wedding in Florida in 2002.
After his arrest Mr Malakasuka, 35, was quizzed about being involved in the theft and exportation of dozens of stolen vehicles, including BMWs, Range Rovers and Aston Martins.
He has now been charged with conspiracy to steal and is due to appear at Wolver-hampton Crown Court on April 23.
Leading Midland business figures are believed to be among the victims of the gang, whose alleged crime spree ran from November 2005 to October 2007.
Cars were stolen from rural and wealthy Midland areas and then exported in sealed shipping containers to Tanzania and Kenya .
The gang is said to have employed the services of unsuspecting freight forwarders, who made arrangements with various shipping companies to export the cars.
A police source said: "Mr Malakasuka was arrested in an apparently stolen Mercedes after officers ran a PNC check on the car.
"His home was then raided and various items were recovered."
Mr Malakasuka, a Tanzanian national, is believed to have come to the UK via the US in 2004. Until his arrest, he worked for a Midland car parts company, earning between £17,000 and £20,000-a-year.
There was no answer at his four-bedroomed detached home on Friday, where a 'for sale' sign has been up for several weeks. There were no cars on the drive.
A neighbour shown a picture of Mr Malakasuka said he recognised him as the man who had lived nearby for about two years.
The theft of prestige cars is a lucrative international business.
A London-based gang arrested in 2006 was found to have been stealing 120 prestige cars a month, mostly Mercedes. They would strip them down to spare parts, pack them into containers and despatch them to Nigeria . One policeman compared their methods to "an industrial production line".
Repatriation agencies, who collect rewards for stolen cars, brought about 1,000 vehicles back to Britain in 2006.
They employ spotters in places such as Cyprus , Dubai and Spain , looking for suspicious UK-registered cars.
In recent years, overall car theft has declined in Britain . Of 180,000 vehicles stolen in 2006, 48 per cent were later recovered. The rest were scrapped for spare parts, given a false identity, or shipped abroad.
Source credit: Is this man behind the real Gone In 60 Seconds? EXCLUSIVE POLICE SMASH ALLEGED pounds 1.5M LUXURY CAR THEFT RING. - Free Online Library
