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TÜV Süd scandal: Badges given away - unsafe vehicles on the road throughout Europe

2022-05-08T20:40:37.571Z


TÜV Süd scandal: Badges given away - unsafe vehicles on the road throughout Europe Created: 05/08/2022, 22:27 By: Christoph Gschossmann A TÜV badge: Supposedly there is a network of corruption around German inspectors. © Andrea Warnecke/dpa-tmn Hundreds of thousands of souped-up TÜV reports from Germany are said to be responsible for the fact that unsafe vehicles are on the road throughout Eur


TÜV Süd scandal: Badges given away - unsafe vehicles on the road throughout Europe

Created: 05/08/2022, 22:27

By: Christoph Gschossmann

A TÜV badge: Supposedly there is a network of corruption around German inspectors.

© Andrea Warnecke/dpa-tmn

Hundreds of thousands of souped-up TÜV reports from Germany are said to be responsible for the fact that unsafe vehicles are on the road throughout Europe.

Munich - You have never seen the cars, but certify them road safety: This should not be an isolated case with German TÜV inspectors.

According to research by the

Süddeutsche Zeitung

, criminal organizations work together with TÜV employees.

One scam consists in obtaining a driver's license for Europe for junk cars that have been decommissioned in the USA, even though they are no longer roadworthy.

TÜV corruption: hubs in Lithuania and Italy - Hell's Angels involved

In order to put a stop to this business, several German judicial and police authorities are dealing with these cases.

The problem: There is no nationwide central registration.

Hubs of the machinations probably exist in Lithuania and Italy.

The Hells Angels rocker gang is also said to be involved.

According to the newspaper's research, TÜV employees traveled to the Baltic country to inspect cars there.

Some of these were assembled with stolen spare parts.

But as soon as they are registered for Germany for just one day, they are roadworthy for the entire EU according to European law.

The criminals took advantage of this.

A trail also leads to Rosenheim in Upper Bavaria, where a former employee of TÜV Süd has already been convicted of false certification and bribery in the office: he had classified cars as eligible for registration for a car dealer, even though he had only seen photos of them.

In return, the businessman gave him luxurious trips to America.

TÜV Süd: Supervisory Board member Thomas Eder in the focus of the investigators

In other cases, production cars were converted into luxury hearses - again the TÜV employees ensured road safety, although serious interventions had taken place.

The vehicles popular with the mafia for last resort represent a huge security risk. The

SZ

, for example, reports on a case of a converted Maserati with an estimated value of more than 100,000 euros, which skidded on a German autobahn and crashed into the guardrail.

Thomas Eder, a member of the TÜV Süd supervisory board, was also the focus of Italian investigators when he was found during a raid on a car repair shop in Parma on April 18, 2017.

German appraisers are not actually allowed to test abroad, and the workshop also did not have the necessary equipment.

The questionable stay for Eder had no legal consequences.

(cg)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-08

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