Bulgaria and the Netherlands at the Center of Customs Fraud Scheme Involving Over 1,000 Cars to Cyprus

Bulgaria and the Netherlands Used for Customs Fraud Involving Cars to Cyprus

Bulgaria and the Netherlands have been identified as key participants in a scheme to import used cars from the United Kingdom to Cyprus through the manipulation of customs values. Cypriot customs intelligence has inspected over 1,000 vehicles, discovering falsified documents for duty payments in dozens of cases.

The Fraud Mechanism

According to the investigation, the vehicles initially arrive in the Netherlands, where customs formalities are carried out based on extremely low declared values in electronic systems. They are then transported by land to Bulgaria, where they are registered and receive EU documentation. In this way, the vehicles enter Cyprus as goods originating from an EU member state, which exempts them from re-taxation.

This strategy is also used to bypass Cypriot legislation, which prohibits the import of used cars older than five years from third countries. By registering them in Bulgaria, cars from the United Kingdom are presented as EU vehicles.

"Prices at which you couldn't even buy a bicycle"

Senior customs official and spokesperson for the Cyprus Customs Department, Georgios Konstantinou, points out that the declared values were "shockingly low." He adds that luxury sedans and SUVs were declared at barely one-fifth or even one-twentieth of their actual market value.

"We are talking about prices at which you couldn't even buy a bicycle," Konstantinou explains.

International Investigation

The damages from evaded customs duties and taxes are estimated at millions of euros. Cyprus is already cooperating with authorities in the Netherlands and Bulgaria and has provided evidence to European institutions. The European Public Prosecutor's Office and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) are expected to join the investigation to determine whether an organized criminal network operating at multiple levels within the EU is behind the scheme.