Seized cars released

Press, 14 September 1988, Page 2

Seized cars released

By

MIKE DORNING

The Customs Department yesterday released 31 second-hand Japanese cars it had held at Lyttelton for a fortnight but another 166 cars remain in custody as the department proceeds with a national investigation into possible import fraud by used-car dealers. The -department released the cars after a Christchurch car dealer provided documents proving the value he had declared for the vehicles on customs forms was correct. Five other local dealers had not yet satisfied the department, said Mr lan Fawcett, Assistant Collector of Customs in Christchurch. Documentation for another 66 cars was being processed by the department yesterday, but dealers still had not provided proof of the purchase price for 100 of the •

cars temporarily impounded, Mr Fawcett said. Customs detained the vehicles, together with similar car shipments at Auckland and Tauranga, after two departmental investigators returned from a 10-day visit to Japan. The department’s investigation found that Japanese documents showed purchase prices for vehicles that differed from information given on customs declarations in some previous cases, Mr Fawcett said. He declined to identify the local dealers whose cars were seized or say whether the department had any evidence local dealers had underdeclared the values of their imports. Most of the cars impounded at Lyttelton were four to five years old with an average retail value of $lO,OOO, Mr Fawcett said.