JEDDAH, 10 August — Brig. Abdul Aziz Muhammad ibn Saeed, assistant director general of public security, said his department would not hesitate to punish hire purchase companies using sham modus operandi to recover their cars from defaulters.
The companies have lodged complaints against defaulters by falsely claiming that the car had been stolen and thus managed to regain ownership.
Speaking to Arab News, he said such calls made by these companies had unnecessarily involved patrol police in matters that are not their concern. "If such calls are made by the companies, which know the location of the cars, then it will be considered a ‘frivolous’ call and the company will be held responsible accordingly," he said.
Some companies, who offer installment service, have been found making such calls to the police in order to regain custody of their cars from defaulters or force the person to pay the remaining installments.
Ibn Saeed, however, pointed out that there has been a drop in the number of such calls recently.
"The public security gives utmost importance to every call it receives. And such frivolous calls negate the importance of other calls which could be linked to criminal activities," he said, adding that there has been a noticeable increase in car robbery.
