By Rex Mphisa
OWNERS of South African stolen vehicles are unwilling to claim their cars from Zimbabwe likely pointing towards insurance fraud or organised crime.
Under the circmstances it would mean the cars may not have been stolen but may have been willingly but illegally disposed of to make good insurance claims.
This came out of a Crime Liason Committee and Business Against Crime Forum of Zimbabwe meeting held at Beitbridge Beitbridge on Tuesday.
The forum at Beitbridge, chaired by former Councillor Gift Nyoni, comprises a cross-section of the Beitbridge community which sits to discuss prevalent crimes seeking solutions.
The officer in charge of crime at the Beitbridge Criminal Investigations Department at Beitbridge Inspector Garikai Jimu said owners of cars recovered by police are not coming forward.
“They are not claiming heir cars so that we concluded cases. We have many incomplete cases where owners are not coming forward. We have plenty of those cars,” he said.
A businessman Croco Ngwenya had said as the levels of the Limpopo River were subsiding, police should be wary of several cars driven across the riverbed after they were stolen from South Africa.
“We have been recovering many if these cars but the owners are not found,” said Jimu.
The Beitbridge Police Station yard is filled with cars recovered after they had been brought from South Africa illegally.
Some are smuggled through the border on temporary import permits while others are driven through informal crossing points.
Car insurance fraud costs the South African industry an estimated R4 billion annually, driving up premiums for all drivers.
The most common scams include staged accidents like “crash-for-cash”, vehicle cloning, and inflating repair costs in collusion with unscrupulous panel beaters.