VEHICLE PARTS THEFT A GROWING CONCERN IN HONIARA

Police Commissioner Frank Prendergast. Photo credit: SIBC.

Police Commissioner Frank Prendergast. Photo credit: SIBC.

Removing parts of a vehicle involved in an accident without the owner’s consent is theft, says the Police Commissioner, Frank Prendergast.

This practice has been common in and around Honiara whenever there’s a vehicle collision.

Asked what the police can do about such practices, Commissioner Prendergast says this is theft and people involved will be dealt with accordingly.

“The police view is that is theft and where we can identify people who’ve been involved in that sort of activity we’ll need to deal with them, so it doesn’t matter if the vehicle involved has been involved in some sort of criminal activity or the people have been drinking, the vehicle itself is still the property of those individuals and should be treated appropriately and that has happened on occasion where those peoples have had bits and pieces stolen off them after accidents.”

The Police Commissioner says this practice is illegal and calls on the community to work together with the police to stop it.

“Again it’s not a good practice and it’s a practice that I really would ask the community to work with us to stop it and all they need to think, people need to think is what would they think if that was their vehicle and are involved in an accident that happened, so again it’s a crime. The police will treat it as a crime and I’m really asking the community to work with us and stop doing this. This is about people respecting each other.”

The Police Commissioner made the remarks in his weekly media conference recently.

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