Suspected illegal car importers charged with tax evasion

Two people believed to be part of the notorious illegal vehicle import cartel were on Monday charged in court with 11 counts of tax evasion.

The two men are believed to be importing high end vehicles into the country mis-declared as low end cars.

Two men were charged with among other things, procuring motor vehicles with outstanding tax declaration totaling Sh5 million.

Elija Ojuma Girimani and George Onyango Opanga are further accused of giving false declarations to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to procure various motor vehicles.

The arrest of the two is a major breakthrough for the taxman who has over the years lost billions of shillings in unpaid taxes.

KRA has over the past six months stepped up investigations into the illegal practice where unscrupulous importers have been selling unregistered vehicles to unsuspecting customers at car bazaars.

The two men were arrested on Thursday last week along the Kenya-Uganda border and are believed to have been fleeing the country.

They are also facing charge of conspiracy to contravene provisions of East Africa Community Customs Management Act.

They appeared before Milimani Court Chief Magistrate Daniel Ogembo where they denied over 11 tax evasion   counts and were remanded for five days pending completion of investigation.

The case will be mentioned on 23rd September 2016.

A recent investigation found that most of the cars that end up in the local market are stolen overseas, while others are diverted to the local market on transit to other countries.

Last week KRA de registered 121 cars believed to have been illegally imported and registered.