Police and the tax authority raided a business that traded in stolen converters

Is the scourge of theft of catalytic converters finally getting a real answer?

Police and the tax authority have acted against a business in the castle that is suspected of trading in stolen converters

Keenan Cohen

27/01/2022

Thursday, 27 January 2022, 17:38 Updated: 18:11

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For thousands of Israelis who woke up one morning to find that the catalytic converter in their car had been stolen, this announcement comes too late.

But after more than a year the scourge of stealing catalytic converters from cars continues to occur, yesterday the police and the tax authority took action not only against the thieves themselves, but against those who drive this chain - the "exporters" of those rare metals that cause the converters.

The business located in Tira in the Triangle was visited yesterday by Hof Sq. To.

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The rare metals found in converters are in demand and their prices are rising (Photo: Israel Police Spokeswoman, Police Spokeswoman and Tax Authority)

The suspicion in the business arose following an investigation by the Tax Authority following invoices he submitted in order to receive VAT refunds. The source of the metals is in stolen converters. As part of the investigation, the authorities froze NIS 3.7 million in VAT refunds registered to the business.

The war on converter thieves is probably going to focus from now on on those "metal contractors" to whom the simple thieves sell the sawn-off converters from cars.

The catalytic converter, contains rare and very expensive metals, when these are heated to high temperatures, these metals absorb the polluting exhaust particles and thus reduce the air pollution of the cars.

The metals are disassembled from the converters and sold (Photo: Israel Police spokeswoman, police spokeswoman and tax authority)

The converter located at the bottom of the car is exposed and very accessible to those thieves who saw it from the bottom of the cars, and then sell it to those businesses that disassemble the metals from it and export them.

The prices of these metals have skyrocketed in recent years.

The palladium for example has already crossed the $ 2,500 per ounce and iridium prices have already exceeded $ 6,000 per ounce.

Among the vehicles most affected by the plague of thefts are Subaru cars and Toyota hybrid cars in which these metals are found in large quantities.

The economic damages in this case range from NIS 2,300 at best to NIS 4,000 to NIS 8,000 in the case of a new and expensive converter. Pass the annual licensing test).

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Tags

• Israel Police

• Taxes Authority

• Car theft