Police investigations are continuing in the Italian city of Ferrara regarding several cases of vehicle registration fraud. The bosses of Italian haulage companies are among those being investigated.
According to trasportoeuropa.it, it has emerged that trucks and trailers not fit for the road were given the green light in exchange for 350 euro bribes. It is said that the practice has been the norm for years.
As many as 216 people are currently being investigated by the Ferrara Public Prosecutor’s Office. Three are being held in custody before their trial – two officials from Italy’s driving licence department, as well as a driving school owner. A further four individuals are also under house arrest – road haulage contractors from Ferrara, Bologna and Rovigo. In addition, the Italian police are hunting down several other haulage bosses who are alleged to have been involved in numerous corrupt activities.
A number of vehicles are now also being checked as part of the investigation. Moreover, public prosecutor Andrea Maggioni has obtained the registration documents of 350 HGVs registered in over thirty Italian provinces.
It is said the aforementioned trucks will have to undergo an extraordinary overhaul before they can be considered road legal. So far the investigation has found that many vehicles that obtained the green light from the authorities actually had mechanical or electrical problems that posed risks to traffic.
In order to carry out the investigation, officers even had to go undercover, use wiretapping tactics and study CCTV camera footage. The audio and visual evidence obtained by the police reportedly shows that corrupt officials were nicknamed „the sun” and the „divine hand”, while the honest ones were considered „fussy” or „dangerous” and thus to be avoided.
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