Adrian Delia calls for overhaul of Transport Malta controls after mileage scam

Opposition spokesperson Adrian Delia says consumers need to be protected after second-hand car mileage scam is uncovered by MaltaToday

Adrian Delia
Adrian Delia

Adrian Delia called for an overhaul of administrative procedures at Transport Malta in the wake of a tampered mileage scam run by two car dealers.

The Opposition transport spokesperson was reacting to the story unveiled by MaltaToday last Sunday that showed how Rokku Autodealer and Tal-Qasab Autosales tampered with the odometers of imported second-hand Japanese cars.

Hundreds of consumers were sold cars with low mileage only to discover that their vehicle was originally bought in Japan by the dealer with thousands more kilometres on the odometer.

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In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Delia remarked that buying a car is normally the second biggest investment people make.

“We have to see how those who have been bitten [by this scam] are compensated. And then government has to overhaul the administrative system because there are too many loopholes,” he said.

These shortcomings cause citizens to suffer, he added.

The scam was facilitated by lax controls at the port and at Transport Malta, where paperwork presented by car dealers was not cross-checked with an online database where the original details of the vehicle are registered at the point of transfer in Japan.

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