Spike in hired cars used for crime
Car rental agents say criminals are increasingly using hired vehicles for smuggling perlemoen or carrying out burglaries.
|||Cape Town - Staff at car rental companies say that criminals are increasingly using hired vehicles when breaking the law by smuggling perlemoen or carrying out crowbar burglaries.
But they say there is little they can do to prevent this.
Weekend Argus spoke to employees at a number of Cape Town car hire businesses, who said when signing out cars they simply hoped the driver would not use the vehicles to commit crimes.
The employees spoke on condition of anonymity and did not want their companies named.
A senior employee at one company said: “Criminals tend not to use their own vehicles. If they have the money and have the means, then they use ours. We’re sitting ducks. We just want to get our vehicles back in good condition.”
He said even though customers had to produce identity documents and their driver’s licences when hiring cars, there was no way of knowing who would drive the car and for what the car was to be used.
A rental company manager said vehicles hired from their business were found to have been used for smuggling items, including perlemoen.
“We’ve got trackers in all the cars now. We check customers and ask for identification, proof of address and proof of work etc. If there’s something fishy I’ll phone the numbers they provide and ask questions.”
Another business owner said she did not rent cars to locals. “I mostly rent out to overseas people. I don’t deal with cash at all. I’ve heard too many stories of cars being stolen.”
Police did not respond to queries about rental cars being used in crimes.
Weekend Argus