Car dealers warn of two men making bogus purchases

At least four car showrooms in Alexandra Road were recently visited by phantom shoppers.

Two men, who looked to be in their 20s and who identified themselves as Mr. Jerald Low and Mr. Timothy Yeo, entered the showrooms and offered to buy cars with cheques that were later cancelled.

The failed payment in these cases went up to as high as $800,000 in one instance.

The transactions did not proceed far enough for dealers to hand over the cars. Car dealers usually hand over a purchased car only after full payment has been received.

A Volkswagen Singapore spokesman confirmed that the pair visited its premises at around 3:00pm on 13 January. They test-drove two cars before selecting the Golf R and the Arteon models. "At the point of purchase, the Golf R was $201,400 and the Arteon was $207,400," the spokesman said. The pair made full payment for the cars with a cheque.


The man called Mr. Low wrote a cheque for $35,000 as the initial payment. "They didn't even go for a test drive or attempt to negotiate the price. They just asked for three units and asked for cash payment," Mr. Tan said. 

"I have been in the industry for 20 years, but I have never seen something like that," he added.

The showroom was later told the cheque had been cancelled. The two other showrooms, which declined to be named, said the duo tried the same trick at their premises.

A representative of one of these showrooms said the men visited on 13 January and paid for three cars with a cheque for $800,000.

A CIMB spokesman told The Straits Times that due to banking secrecy laws, it was unable to say if it was aware of the case. ST understands that the four car showrooms have not filed any police report.

Veteran lawyer Amolat Singh said that in these cases, even if a police report is filed, it would be hard to charge the men as their actions do not fall under a clear-cut offence.