160 cars impounded in Europe-wide crackdown

Three cars were impounded in Ireland as part of an EU-wide operation targeting stolen vehicles.

As a result of Operation Cycar, 160 stolen vehicles were seized across Europe with 75 arrests.

Ireland was one of 20 EU countries that took part in the operation, co-ordinated by Europol, the EU police agency, on Sept 10 and 11. The operation here centred on Dublin Port resulting in the seizure of one stolen car and two “finance frauds”, as they are known.

Finance frauds are where a person obtains money from a finance company to buy a car and then, after making a couple of repayments, puts it into a container and ships it abroad to sell it.

The person then claims the car was stolen and either the finance company writes the debt off or an insurance company pays out.

The two 4x4 vehicles impounded here were about to board a container ship to Nigeria.

It is thought the figures for Ireland would have been a lot higher had the UK taken part in the operation.

This is because most of the stolen vehicles here are put on ferries for Britain for onward sale. UK police would have had to take part in the operation for gardaí to target these routes.

Police experts from each of the 20 EU states, including gardaí from the stolen vehicles unit, gathered at Europol’s headquarters in the Hague, the Netherlands, to co-ordinate the operation.

Figures previously published show that 1,218 cars were stolen in burglaries in the first seven months of this year in Ireland.

Machinery is a major target of specialist gangs in recent times. Unlike left-hand drive cars, which would generally go to the UK and Cyprus, machinery is used in all countries, regardless of whether it is left or right-hand drive.