Spectres

 

Or Ghosts or Phantoms.

What happens when you want to import your Roller (or any other luxury car) into France but don't fancy paying import duties?

 

I'll tell you.

 

You register it as being adapted for disabled people - even if it isn't.  That way it is Tax Exempt.

 

So how do you actually do that then?

 

I'll tell you.

 

You take advantage of a bit of a stupid decision made by the French government in 2017.  They decided to part-privatise the SIV - ie the registration system.  This was allegedly in a bid to speed up the slow process of delivering registration papers to car-buyers but probably, like all privatisations, to save money anjd help their rich friends make money.

 

Look at Mrs.Thatch in the '80s.

 

But I digress.

 

Some 2,000 civil servants were assigned to new tasks, and instead car-dealers were given the right to access the register themselves in order to issue documents for their clients.

 

Car dealers!?

What could possibly go wrong?

 

The full story is here.

 

And to give you the opening paragraph...

 

A million illegally-registered cars are being driven in France in a fraud scandal that has cost hundreds of millions of euros in lost taxes and fines, according to the state auditor.

 

These are known as "ghost cars" - even the ones that are not Rolls Royces.

 

The closing paragraph concludes...

 

France's interior ministry said it acknowledged the problem, and was taking steps to remedy it. An action plan announced last year has led to an increase in fraud detections, while the number of authorisations to access the SIV has been sharply reduced. 

 

 I think I know who they need to call.