Police Raids on Sydney Car Dealers for Odo Tampering

February 18, 2016Australian Compliance, General News, Import Regulations

In case you’ve not seen the news…

Coordinated police raids on Sydney car dealers two days ago have resulted in one dealership, “Dream Car City”, having its trading immediately suspended.

Videos below show police raids on several well known Sydney dealerships, including Edward Lees Imports on Parramatta Road.

Moving sale ending Feb 2016… Prophetic. Moving to another country perhaps ?

Prestige Auto Centre, Edward Lees Imports and Master Cars at Blacktown were also raided.

Those three businesses are accused of digitally altering odometers on at least 100 vehicles imported from Japan and will have to show Fair Trading NSW why they should not be disciplined.

Fair Trading NSW have been investigating the dealers for two years, following a tip-off from a consumer who was concerned about their vehicle’s wear and tear, and information from police.

A number of people are expected to be prosecuted by NSW Police and Fair Trading NSW in connection with the ongoing investigation.

Fines up to $20,000 are in place for odometer tampering, while those who knowingly sell or attempt to sell a tampered vehicle face up to 10 years jail.

We feel this action is long overdue and many dealers in other States should heed this warning and feel suitably nervous.

Not only does this illegal behaviour hurt the consumer but it damages the reputation of the industry.

It also makes it difficult for businesses like ours that only source genuine vehicles and have ALWAYS provided all original paperwork including deregistration paper / export certificate and auction sheet.

One of the very reasons we started our business 17 years ago was the absence of a reliable source of genuine imports.

Some news articles have claimed that deregistration documents detailing registration and km history are not readily available from Japan, however this is not true. For some years now, past auction reports, auction sale price in Japan, Japanese registration history, the Japanese Export Certificate and other records have been available online in PDF.

One of the best sources of this data is Japan Car History Check.

Example Japanese Export Certificate produced from the Japanese de-registration paper, showing the kms at the last two registration intervals in Japan.

We recommend everyone considering buying a Japanese import locally, to obtain independent and reliable background information for their own peace of mind.

We only source the best vehicles with genuine kms. Read about our Genuine Mileage Promise

For those wanting the extra control of sourcing their own vehicle, we recommend using only an industry-recognised and licensed vehicle import agent. With a simple low fixed fee per vehicle, there is simply no conflict of interest in supplying the best quality, genuine km vehicles with original paperwork.

We would like to see the upcoming changes to the import regulations require independent odometer inspections prior to import, with the results included on a publicly available database linked to each vehicle’s chassis number. That way anyone could quickly and easily access this information as part of their pre-purchase checks.

The new import scheme from 2018 must be entirely transparent with independent quality checking to eliminate conflicts of interest, protect the consumer, and ensure only the best cars are imported to Australia.

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You can also view upcoming auction vehicles and research 3 months of past auction sales data using our Japan Car Auction Search

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I would just like to give my unreserved recommendation to Geoff and his team at Prestige. Late last year I started the quest to look for a E51 Elgrand for the family. After my great experience some years back finding a Stagea RS FOUR with Geoff’s help it was a no brainer to rely on his expertise again. From beginning to end my interaction with Geoff was nothing short of professional. He was prompt, proactive and nothing seemed to phase him.

I knew enough about the import process to be dangerous. Like a typical guy I did not RTFM in the beginning and was making some really bone-headed picks. It would have saved everybody a lot of time if only I read through the material Geoff provided. If it had bothered him Geoff never showed and he patiently repeated the info I needed to make better picks.

There were many occasions when less than ideal vehicles showed up and being somewhat in a hurry to find a car it was tempting to lower my standard just to have something to bid on for the day. Against his best interest Geoff always talked me into walking away from a less than ideal pick. He could have easily taken advantage of my desperation for a vehicle but that never crossed his mind. He said more than once it’s about finding a car I am happy with and he really meant what he said.

The car we found was everything I set out to find, and then some. The right year, low Ks, had the right equipment and very very clean. The final price tag was right on budget and that’s including everything, tyres, on roads, the lot. The gentleman from the compliance shop could not stop remarking on how clean the car was. When my wife saw the car she could not believe it was 10 years old, it’s a stretch to say it feels brand new, but we could not be happier on how clean the car was. Like most imports the car came with many hidden goodies, we are still finding every little thing that came with the 2005 Elgrand. It was an exceptionally good score.

Geoff took care of everything up until the point the compliance shop receive the vehicle, and I meant everything. There was not a point in time I was lost for what to do and all the detail in the background, Geoff and his team took care of it. I know some people think twice about paying a fee to an agent but I can honestly say it’s worth every cent. Twice he chased down some extra savings – one over air con degassing the other over a reduction on customs. He saved me hundreds of dollars that a lesser agent would have probably deemed not worth their time and I probably would not have cared if I didn’t know. Geoff is the best in the business and he took the time to make sure I did get the savings I am entitled to. It’s these little things that makes Geoff’s service exemplary in the industry.

As long as Geoff is offering his service, I will not be buying a car any other way. If you can afford the lead time and a bit of patience, I whole heartily recommended importing your own car through Prestige Motorsport.

Andrew H, Brisbane ~ 2003 Stagea RS FOUR 2.5L turbo & 2005 Elgrand