A Class Act
I don’t want to be too hard on the victims of this story because they are already paying a very heavy price for their trusting nature. But, it seems to be true, that a sucker is born every second.
I drive a Jaguar, as well as my trusty Volvo, so when an advertisement appeared asking for drivers to sign on to drive high value clients over the Formula One races in Valencia, my interest was raised.
The advert suggested that the company had several VIP clients who wanted personal drivers using top of the line cars, and the payment to the drivers would be so significant to warrant even hiring luxury cars.
I was going to go along to register for this work as my Jaguar has done lots of VIP work and is in very good condition. The company was located in the industrial park of Riba Roja with no expense spared as to appointments made to their offices. They looked like a very upmarket operation.
I spoke with another driver who explained that all drivers were asked to bring their cars on a certain date for inspection by the chief executive officer. We would be required to leave them overnight while the inspections were done and assignments were made and contracts were drawn up.
What was so important about me leaving my car with keys overnight while I was made to make my own way home and back again? Something was not quite right about that. As we say, it just didn’t compute!
For seventy drivers it was perfectly alright and they left their rented cars and personally owned vehicles in the warehouse overnight, agreeing to return in the morning to get their assignments. When they arrived the next morning what they found was that all the cars had disappeared, except their number plates, and the elaborate offices had been dismantled. Everything and everybody had gone. Presumably the cars had been placed in containers and dispatched to the port for shipment abroad. Only three people with some small connections were picked up by the Guardia Civil, but the big fish were long gone.
As a scam this is a new one. We have long heard about the theft of luxury cars that are then shipped to north Africa, but this one is original in that instead of having to go out and steal the vehicles, one by one, they have simply had the owners bring them in.
The moral of the story is, of course, trust no one. Don’t allow yourself to be persuaded by what appears to be stability, and most of all, if it seems to be too good to be true, that is usually the case.
Can I fault the victims? Only because they trusted their property to others whom they really did not know. Could I have been a victim? I very nearly was. When greed starts to get in the way of common sense any of us could be taken in.
Meanwhile, I really am sorry for the losses of some very good people.
Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael
I don’t want to be too hard on the victims of this story because they are already paying a very heavy price for their trusting nature. But, it seems to be true, that a sucker is born every second.
I drive a Jaguar, as well as my trusty Volvo, so when an advertisement appeared asking for drivers to sign on to drive high value clients over the Formula One races in Valencia, my interest was raised.
The advert suggested that the company had several VIP clients who wanted personal drivers using top of the line cars, and the payment to the drivers would be so significant to warrant even hiring luxury cars.
I was going to go along to register for this work as my Jaguar has done lots of VIP work and is in very good condition. The company was located in the industrial park of Riba Roja with no expense spared as to appointments made to their offices. They looked like a very upmarket operation.
I spoke with another driver who explained that all drivers were asked to bring their cars on a certain date for inspection by the chief executive officer. We would be required to leave them overnight while the inspections were done and assignments were made and contracts were drawn up.
What was so important about me leaving my car with keys overnight while I was made to make my own way home and back again? Something was not quite right about that. As we say, it just didn’t compute!
For seventy drivers it was perfectly alright and they left their rented cars and personally owned vehicles in the warehouse overnight, agreeing to return in the morning to get their assignments. When they arrived the next morning what they found was that all the cars had disappeared, except their number plates, and the elaborate offices had been dismantled. Everything and everybody had gone. Presumably the cars had been placed in containers and dispatched to the port for shipment abroad. Only three people with some small connections were picked up by the Guardia Civil, but the big fish were long gone.
As a scam this is a new one. We have long heard about the theft of luxury cars that are then shipped to north Africa, but this one is original in that instead of having to go out and steal the vehicles, one by one, they have simply had the owners bring them in.
The moral of the story is, of course, trust no one. Don’t allow yourself to be persuaded by what appears to be stability, and most of all, if it seems to be too good to be true, that is usually the case.
Can I fault the victims? Only because they trusted their property to others whom they really did not know. Could I have been a victim? I very nearly was. When greed starts to get in the way of common sense any of us could be taken in.
Meanwhile, I really am sorry for the losses of some very good people.
Copyright © 2009 Eugene Carmichael
