The Guardia Civil has managed to recover 40 rental vehicles stolen in different countries of the European Union that were later taken to Spain, registered, and sold on the second-hand market. At the moment, eight people have been arrested for crimes of falsification of public documents, receipt, and fraud.
Thanks to document analysis by the Central Traffic Investigation Group of the Civil Guard along with information received from different provincial traffic headquarters and ITV stations, it was possible to discover the fraudulent registration of vehicles that had been reported stolen.
A criminal network had stolen the vehicles in countries around the European Union. Once in Spanish territory, the criminals modified identification elements of the cars to be able to register them and later sell them on.
The criminal gang obtained and stole vehicles through rental contracts in a variety of countries. To do this, they resorted to using homeless people who, in exchange for monetary rewards, sold them on using their own personal documentation. The criminals moved the vehicles to Spain, where they were registered using false documentation, failing to pay the corresponding fees to the tax office.
When a vehicle was registered in Spain, the criminals then reported the supposed theft of them, notifying the rental company in order to evade the payment of the corresponding monthly payments. The vehicles were legalised in Spain by obtaining the documentation in the ITVs, where they were granted the technical inspection card. Later they were registered in various provincial headquarters, which allowed them to obtain a new national registration. This process complicated the tracking down of the vehicles since they had acquired a new identity.
The operation, called ‘Sescar’, was carried out by the government beginning in October 2024 after the finding of multiple enrolment files presented in different provincial traffic headquarters and ITV stations throughout the country. So far, 8 people have been arrested, and 40 cars have been recovered.