No provision for theft involving private rented vehicles

PETALING JAYA: There is no appropriate legislation for cases of thefts involving private rented vehicles, and this is why it can only be classified as civil cases and referred to the magistrate, according to the police.

Bukit Aman Crime Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Seri Abd Jalil Hassan said while most cases of car theft would come under Section 379A of the Penal Code, the Act, however, could not be applied to vehicles that were rented out.

This, he explained, was due to the fact that Section 379A only applied when the incidents involved the vehicle’s registered owners.

“When a rental vehicle is reported missing, some of the legal issues that arise includes the real owner not having filed a police report; the renter did not file a police report because he was not the registered owner; owners who filed a police report were not bound by Section 379A of the Penal Code.

“Based on these points, the investigation under Section 379A of the Penal Code cannot be conducted because of the ‘registered owner issue’.

“On the other hand, it is more directed towards breach of contract which depends on the terms of the agreement or rental contract,” he said when contacted.

Comm Abd Jalil added that if the renter used the rented vehicle for other illegal purposes, then the offence could be investigated by the Commercial Crime Investigation Department, especially when it involved a criminal breach of trust, fraudulent use and others.

The Star recently ran a series of reports on car thieves who simply pay a small fee to rent luxurious cars, disable the GPS in them and go off the radar.

With only bare minimum effort, the syndicates can escape punishment, given the lack of legal action on their activities.

Many victims, including those who leased their vehicles to big and even app-based car rental providers, claimed their cases were not given the rightful attention.

They said their cases were not considered as crime, and were instead told to initiate legal action against the “renters” for breach of contract.

The “renters”, however, had escaped beyond trace.

The syndicates would then put up the vehicles – which were not blacklisted as “stolen” – for sale.

Meanwhile, Comm Abd Jalil advised the public not to lease their privately owned vehicles because any incident including theft would not be covered by insurance or the law.

The public, he said, should also check if a car rental company was legalised to run its business before deciding to lease out their vehicles to the company.

“Read the terms and conditions of the agreement before signing on the dotted line.

“If there is a WhatsApp application, the public is advised not to do any business using the app as it is not regulated under any legislation,” he said.

The Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) director-general Datuk Azlan Shah Al Bakri previously said there were only four companies allowed to run online car rental platforms (Trevo, Klezcar, Wahdah and Xcess).

The owner of the platforms would have to purchase adequate insurance policies covering the drivers, passengers and third parties.

“Liability will be put solely on the company for cars under the POC (proof of concept) phase,” he said.