Muscat: Oman police have busted a gang smuggling rented vehicles out of the country and arrested four suspects.
“Fake offices and contracts were used to dupe a large number of people in giving their vehicles to the leasing company,” said Major Saif Al Maamari from the Criminal Investigation Department.
The modus operandi of the four was similar to that employed by criminals in an earlier case in the southern region.
He explained that the accused had registered their trade to open a leasing company in Seeb suburb of Muscat. “They lured a number of citizens through advertisements for leasing or selling their vehicles,” he added.
“The offer was too lucrative for some of them to ignore and the accused even showed them papers that showed that they had contract for vehicles with a government organisation,” he pointed out.
“Once we learnt about the company and its fraudulent ways, we approached people, who were contracted by this company to lease vehicles,” he said.
However, the police officer added that some of the victims were unwilling to lodge complaints. “They [some of the victims] believed that post-dated cheques issued by the company that leased or bought vehicles guaranteed them their rights to their respective vehicles,” Major Al Maamari pointed out.
He also said that a similar fraud was uncovered by the police in Dhofar recently. “They had stolen around 79 vehicles from different people in the southern region of the country,” he revealed.
Major Al Maamari called upon people not to be misled by smooth-talking crooks and fraudulent contracts. The police have also urged people not to deal with people operating from offices not licensed by the authorities.
