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Police Recovered 64 Vehicles From Car Loan Sharks

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Police Recovered 64 Vehicles From Car Loan Sharks

Police have recovered 64 vehicles from car loan sharks at seven locations in central Thailand. The car loan gang preyed on owners who used their vehicles as collateral for car loans.

The loan shark gang refused to return the vehicles and instead resold them.

The seven locations were raided by Crime Suppression Division (CSD) police as part of a crackdown on the loan shark gang

According to Police, 22 of the recovered vehicles were evidence in cases filed with police by victims of the car loan scammers.

The CSD launched a full investigation after receiving complaints that the gang had set up three Facebook pages to entice people to mortgage their cars with them. Many car owners participated.

The gang refused to return the vehicles after the owners raised the funds to redeem them. The complainants later discovered that their cars had been resold.

Police Recovered 64 Vehicles From Car Loan Sharks

An initial investigation discovered that more than 140 cars pledged with the gang had been resold.

According to Pol Col Bunlue Phadungthin, chief of CSD sub-division 3, his officers got their first break when they discovered a blue Honda Civic at a home in Nonthaburi.

The owner of the car had previously filed a complaint with police in Chon Buri province. The property’s occupant had no idea where the car came from and later admitted to police that it was a pawned vehicle that he intended to resell.

The investigation was then expanded, resulting in searches at seven different locations in central Thailand Nonthaburi province.

A total of 64 cars were recovered from two men only identified as Chuchai and Ratchawat. Both are alleged members of a car theft ring.

According to Police, 22 of the vehicles recovered were linked to missing-vehicle cases in Chon Buri and Chachoengsao provinces.

The two were taken into custody by police for legal action, and the investigation is being expanded to include other members of the car loan scam gang.

Police Recovered 64 Vehicles From Car Loan Sharks

Loan Shark Gangs in Thailand

Money lending gangs thrive throughout Thailand and preyed on people who are short on cash, according to Thai police

The authorities, have been cracking down on such illegal car loan operations, and estimate that hundreds of millions of baht were taken from unsuspecting customers.

According to RFA, many desperate people fall victim to such illegal operations because they do not have access to legitimate loans during difficult times.

For many people, online money lending, and smartphone app-based services, have replaced traditional loans offered by banks because it provides quick approval without the need for documents or credit checks.

Some of the victims only needed a few minutes to borrow tens of thousands of baht.

After receiving numerous complaints from loan victims who reported physical intimidation, the Police created a Center for Countering Loan Sharks in June 2020.

Police have investigated over 7,000 loan cases so far this year. For the first 8 months of this year, the center’s hotline received approximately 4,000 compalints per month, but could only attend to half of them due to a lack of personnel and resources.

Despite this, police arrested 833 loan shark, froze 254 bank accounts, impounded hundreds of cars and motorcycles, and seized Bt1.49 million baht in cash in those eight months.

The centre estimated that the confiscated assets were worth more than Bt31 million baht.

Several suicides have been blamed on loan sharks threats in the last 2 years, according to authorities.

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