The Polish Leasing Association warns. This is a new method of cheaters

Criminals are looking for well-paid specialists, e.g. doctors, IT workers

Brokers who export cars abroad, mainly to France, but also to Spain, the Netherlands and other countries, have started to actively operate on the Polish market. They first look for leasing company clients with a positive credit history – they target doctors, IT workers, and other well-paid professionals – and then encourage them to enter a highly profitable business. This is to lease the car and then sublet it to an intermediary for foreign markets. Of course, the whole thing is to bring the lessee a huge profit, advertised as passive income.

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As you can guess, many clients of leasing companies are not even aware of the risks associated with this type of business. First of all, the lessee has no control over the rented vehicle and has no knowledge of where the car is located and who is using it. The Polish Leasing Association explains that usually everything works fine at the beginning, but the end can be sad. Many cars are completely destroyed, e.g. during illegal races, or used for drug smuggling or insurance fraud. And we are talking about expensive, sports models of brands such as Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche or Volkswagen, because they are mainly chosen by criminals.

The vehicles are used in illegal races or crimes

The vehicles exported from Poland go to foreign rental companies. And because they are used contrary to their intended use, even in the event of their destruction, insurance companies refuse to pay compensation for autocasco (AC). In turn, the copies that were used to commit a crime may be seized by law enforcement agencies and confiscated. In this situation, the lessee who lent the vehicle to another entity without the consent of the lessor must pay the entire liability to the leasing company.

The Polish Leasing Association even gives examples of fraud. In one of them, the sports car was supposed to go to a French rental company, and after two months it was found in Burkina Faso, but already broken. The customer had to bear high costs of bringing the car. In another case, the case also concerned a sports car that was burned down in France – the insurer refused to pay compensation. The case of September 2021 also ended with the impossibility of recovering the vehicles. Then the French police in Marseille stopped eight cars, including the Audi Q8, which were used by a drug dealer on the basis of “hand-written” contracts. The vehicles were registered in Poland, but did not have road insurance as required by the French Road and Insurance Code. After confiscation, all eight cars were auctioned.

How to protect yourself from risk, what should you pay attention to?

Unfortunately, it is currently difficult to indicate one pattern of conduct, because both clients of leasing companies as well as suppliers or their employees can participate in the practice. In order to protect yourself from risk, it is important to pay attention to the issues that should arouse our vigilance. You can mention here, among others a proposal to sublet a car on a foreign market, when the service fee significantly exceeds the leasing installment, a proposal to settle the fee for a long period (e.g. in advance for the entire year), no extended insurance policy with the risk of subletting, participation in races, etc., no information about it what will happen with the car and who will use it, as well as offering up to several thousand zlotys of reimbursement for the rebate obtained when buying the car.

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