John Myers, Business Reporter

In the past year, about a thousand damaged vehicles have entered Jamaica for resale in contravention of import rules, pushing the Trade Board to clamp down on the practice.

Raymond Reece, chairman of the motor vehicle committee at the Trade Board says neither dealers nor individuals are allowed to trade a damaged vehicle within three years of its importation.

The policy only allows "individuals to import damaged vehicles for their own use, not for resale."

In a published notice earlier this month, the agency warned of the danger, and urged consumer vigilance.

"We don't want somebody to bring a (damaged) car in, fix it, sell it to an unsuspecting purchaser," said Reece.

Horror stories

"In the earlier days, before they were disallowed, you used to have all kinds of accidents and hear horror stories of people having accidents with these vehicles (because) they weren't properly repaired," Reece said.

The Trade Board, he said, has recently found widespread violation of the import policy

"I think people are using some type of substitute (documentation) to get these vehicles in," he said.

"We have done our own investigations and we have found that some slip through the system, but those have been corrected," Reece told Wednesday Business.

But a check of the Sunday classifieds show that there are several advertisements each week saying such vehicles are available for importation from the United States and Japan, suggesting that the problem remains.

"We know that over the past year about a 1,000 damaged vehicles were imported and our checks reveal that not many of them were transferred to other people," Reece said.

He notes however that thereare systems in place to detect any illegal transaction relating to damaged vehicles.

"The system is so set at the Inland Revenue Department that it shows up on the documents that they get from Customs."

Once detected, the revenue agency places a block on the transfer or it is stated on the title that the vehicles are claused not to be sold for three years.

In the classified section of the Sunday newspapers there are several ads each week offering damaged vehicles for sale. Some actually say the vehicles are available for importation from either Japan or the United States.

President of the Used Car Dealers Association, Kenneth Shaw, said none of his members sell damaged vehicles on their lots.

Shaw, who also sits on the Trade Board's motor vehicle committee, did admit however that some of his members act as agents for sourcing damaged vehicles for interested buyers.

"They can source damaged vehicles for people which they are not precluded from doing and the individual would then import the vehicle," he said.

"They will probably make a commission off it somewhere along the line but for them to actually import it on their licence is against the regulations and they could actually be decertified for that."

john.myers@gleanerjm.com