Ritchie Bros Auction strike out criminals
TER has identified nine stolen items which have been sold through the RB Auction site at Moerdijk in Holland. Eight of the items had been stolen from the UK and one from Turkey. All had had their identities partially or substantially changed prior to entry into the auction to disguise their true, stolen, identities from both RB Auction staff and their thousands of customers.
Two JCB JS130s were found to have been stolen when JCB contacted TER with regard to a suspect identity on a JS130 that their Cypriot dealership had purchased from RB Auction. Once the identity was confirmed as stolen TER asked RB Auction what other equipment their ‘seller’ had placed into the auction, and a second stolen and re-identified JS130 was quickly tracked down to a site in Kent and confirmed to still be the property of GE Capital Equipment Services.
At a second RB Auction sale in Holland one of the dealers, a regular TER Checker, who was viewing the auction contacted TER about the identity of a JCB 532 telescopic handler. When this machine was confirmed as stolen, RB Auction immediately declared the other machines – a Cat TH62 telehandler, a Cat TH63 telehandler, and a Takeuchi TB175 excavator - entered by the same ‘seller’, and a further JCB 3CX backhoe loader which RB Auction were unhappy with, and all five machines were subsequently identified as stolen from the UK and Turkey. All had had their identities changed with new (fake) serial numbers and engine plates, as well as being re-stamped with false identities.
TER is working on the intelligence provided on the fake, as it turns out, ‘companies’ which placed the equipment in the auctions. We’re on the case, and we’re also working closely with RB Auction to help them identify stolen equipment being entered into their auctions.