Case of stolen Bentley: Customs wing finds all accused guilty, imposes hefty fine on them

KARACHI: The Collectorate of Customs, Adjudication-I (CCA), has found all the accused in the stolen Bentley case guilty and declared that all charges levelled at them have been established.

In its judgement, the CCA said Navaid Yamin is a habitual and notorious offender and several cases of criminal nature have been registered against him. A similar case involving a White Range Rover stolen from the UK and recovered from the parking area of an apartment owned by his wife was registered by the same Collectorate.

Case of stolen Bentley: Customs wing finds all accused guilty, imposes hefty fine on them

The modus operandi adopted for the offence is that since diplomats enjoy the privilege of importing vehicles for personal use at zero duty/taxes, vehicles are smuggled under the garb of diplomatic exemption; after clearance of the vehicles by customs authorities, the vehicles, without payment of duty/taxes, are sold in the open market causing loss of millions to the national exchequer, said the judgement.

It said the agency that seized the vehicle did everything in a lawful manner and the case is based on smuggling of a stolen Bentley Mulsanne from the UK under the garb of diplomatic exemption to evade leviable duty/taxes. It declared that the contention taken by Navaid Yamin that his name should be removed from the show cause notice as he has no relation with the alleged offence is baseless and without merit.

“It would be imperative to put on record that Naveed Bilwani is a frontman of Navaid Yamin who has sold the stolen Bentley vehicle under the garb of a diplomatic scheme to Jamil Shafi vide a sale agreement dated 21-09-2020. On perusal of the sale agreement, Jamil Shafi bought the impounded Bentley car at an amount of Rs37,515,650 from Navaid Yameen through Naveed Bilwani,” said the CCA judgement.

“A scrutiny of the sale agreement reveals that the whole deal was based on mala fide intent. The deal took place on 21-09-2020 and the buyer Jamil Shafi paid a hefty amount of PKR 37.5 million without any NOC from Customs, MoFA, and the Embassy of Bulgaria. The seller Naveed Bilwani was responsible for acquiring all the NOCs on or before November 2022.”

According to the judgement, it is clear from the sale agreement that Jamil Shafi knowingly purchased a vehicle from Navaid Yamin through Naveed Bilwani who had asked him to give more than two years (Sept 2020 to Nov 2022) to acquire NOCs for clearance from the embassy and concerned departments.

“... Naveed Bilwani knowingly sold a diplomatic vehicle to Jamil Shafi. Therefore, the contention taken by Navaid Yamin that he has no knowledge about the offence is deceiving as Naveed Bilwani has himself submitted the sale agreement wherein he has taken all the responsibilities for acquiring NOCs from Customs, MoFA, and Embassy.

“This sale agreement has never been challenged at any legal forum by Naveed Bilwani. Furthermore, the registration mark is mentioned as “CD-09-13” and Embassy is mentioned as “Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria”. Therefore, the plea taken by Navaid Yamin that he has no connection with the offence is misleading.

“... In this case also, the stolen vehicle Bentley was smuggled under the diplomatic scheme and was sold to Jamil Shafi under the said sale agreement by Naveed Bilwani,” it said.

“... All the accused were in collusion and connivance with each other (and were) working as a troika and knowingly as well as willfully with mala fide intention dealing with smuggled vehicle and are found guilty of offence under sections 2(s) and 16 of the Customs Act, 1969,” added the CCA verdict.

“Therefore it is concluded that charges levelled in the show cause notice for violation of section 2(s) read with section 16 of the Customs Act, 1969 stand established. Accordingly in terms of clause 89(i) to section 156(1) of act ibid read with SRO 566(1)/2005 dated 06.06.2005 further read with SRO 499(1)/2009 dated 13.06.2009 the vehicle Bentley is ordered to be confiscated outright.

“A penalty of Rs96,105,951 plus Rs37,515,650 as the agreed sale price between the seller and the buyer is imposed on each accused Naveed Bilwani and Jameel Shafi and a penalty of Rs15,000,000 is also imposed on Navaid Yameen S/o M Yameen,” the judgement added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022