CAR GANG SNARED
Inside supercar smuggling ring behind ‘biggest EVER’ hoard of stolen sports cars worth £6.5M seized by cops
At least thirty cars have been recovered
COPS have dismantled a notorious car smuggling ring after seizing a hoard of stolen sports cars worth £6.5million.
Police involved in "Operation Titanium" recovered the luxury vehicles with a £222,000 Lamborghini Huracan Spyder among the haul.
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The seven-year probe began when officers seized four stolen Mercedes cars from a container at Southampton Port.
This initial investigation revealed that the same person was sending other luxury UK vehicles that had been fraudulently obtained in Bangkok.
Intarasak Techaterasiri, the mastermind behind the thefts, went by the alias Boy Unity.
He recruited several people, including four UK citizens, to establish his vast criminal enterprise.
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In 2017, it is believed four UK nationals fraudulently financed 35 cars using forged documents, often using their own details.
Within a week of getting the keys, the cars were illegally exported to Thailand via shipping containers, which block tracker alarm signals, or unwitting air freight companies, and then sold to innocent customers.
Cops described the operation as a "sophisticated" finance fraud as they recovered Porsches, Mercedes and a Ford Mustang.
Peter Duncan, who ran one of the companies that unwittingly transported the vehicles, said: "This is probably the biggest single block repatriation of cars in the UK, definitely the biggest I have ever seen.
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"It's a great feeling to get these cars back into the UK, especially to get them back to the people who rightfully own them.
"I'm happy to have them home in an operation where we have learnt a lot and improved a lot off the back of it."
Now, a host of expensive cars have made their way back to the UK after being shipped to Thailand by criminal gangs that targeted motor dealers.
The criminal behind the "stolen to order" scheme is now in prison in his home country awaiting trial.
Four arrests were also made in the UK, but no charges were brought against the quartet.
Thirty of the 35 stolen vehicles have since been recovered after police successfully dismantled the criminal network.
Peter added: “The system back then did not flag up when cars were missing finance payments.
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"The finance companies would be sending out to a random flat which would have had a mountain of mail at the door.
“It would take a good six weeks for the finance companies to report the cars as stolen, by which point the cars would already be in Thailand.”
A Porsche 718 Boxsters, a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon and a Range Rover SV Autobiography were among the luxury cars shipped.
Sharon Naughton, Head of NaVCIS, said the discovery at Southampton Port was "the pivot point that then led us to work with the Thai authorities and national crime agencies to uncover what was a whole criminal enterprise".
Sharon added: "The person was a private individual who was renting cars.
"To lose a valuable asset really hurt him and his business personally."
The supercars, now significantly depreciated in value since their theft eight years ago, were displayed inside a warehouse in Eastleigh, Hampshire.
Steps have now been taken to upgrade the system to protect financed cars from being exported out of the country, as cars will now be flagged up at export if payments are missing.
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It comes after yobs who allegedly stole five supercars worth £500,000 from a racetrack bragged about the late-night looting on TikTok.
Meanwhile, five supercars worth over half a million pounds were stolen from a company offering racetrack driving experiences by a planned "gang heist".
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