Ryan Ba­choo

Two mo­tor ve­hi­cles which were re­port­ed stolen sev­er­al years ago were re­cov­ered by of­fi­cers of the Stolen Ve­hi­cles Squad, dur­ing an in­tel­li­gence-led ex­er­cise con­duct­ed in the South­ern and Cen­tral Di­vi­sions on Sat­ur­day.

The ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed be­tween 11 am and 4:15 pm.

Dur­ing the ex­er­cise, the of­fi­cers pro­ceed­ed to an au­to garage in the Mara­bel­la dis­trict where they had a con­ver­sa­tion with a man about a ve­hi­cle he owned. The ve­hi­cle, a sil­ver Nis­san Ti­i­da, was pre­sent­ed for in­spec­tion to the of­fi­cers and was found to be bear­ing false reg­is­tra­tion plates. In­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed the ve­hi­cle had been re­port­ed stolen in the St. Joseph dis­trict in 2015.

The man was ques­tioned and sub­se­quent­ly re­leased pend­ing fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

The of­fi­cers then pro­ceed­ed to the Cou­va dis­trict where they con­duct­ed a search at the home of a 35-year-old man. The man then led the of­fi­cers to an­oth­er lo­ca­tion where a white Toy­ota Corol­la mo­tor ve­hi­cle was parked. Checks of the ve­hi­cle re­vealed that it was bear­ing false reg­is­tra­tion plates.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed that the ve­hi­cle had been stolen from the Va­len­cia dis­trict in 2008. The man was ques­tioned by of­fi­cers and sub­se­quent­ly re­leased pend­ing fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tions.