Police officers in the Aktobe region have been ordered to pay a Russian citizen 22.4 million tenge for her stolen car.
According to Ratel.kz, in March 2021, a Lexus LX570 belonging to Russian national Oksana Gun was stolen in the city of Obninsk, Kaluga Region. The car owner contacted the police, and a criminal case was opened.
A month later, the Lexus was detained at the entrance to Kazakhstan at the Alimbet border checkpoint. The car's VIN number had been tampered with. In addition, the driver had a fake vehicle registration certificate. The SUV was recognised as material evidence and placed in a municipal impound lot.
Despite Oksana Gun providing the investigation with documents confirming she was the sole owner of the vehicle, the Aktobe police refused to return her property. Two years later, the woman finally managed to get the car back. However, when she went to the impound lot, it turned out that her Lexus had been given to someone else.
As it later emerged, a certain Belousov had taken the car using a forged order from a senior inspector of the administrative practice department of the Aktobe city police.
The car owner then took the police department to court, demanding compensation for the stolen vehicle - 22 million 437 thousand 840 tenge. However, the judge of the Aktobe city court, Aina Abdraeva, refused Oksana Gun's claim for damages.
"Abdraeva decided that they first needed to find the person who stole the car from the impound lot and hold them accountable, and only then decide who would pay the damages. The judge, for some reason, did not see the police's fault in the fact that due to their bureaucratic delays, the owner was not given her car back, which subsequently led to it being stolen," said representatives of Oksana Gun, Yevgeny Godlevsky and Ilyas Ayapbergenov.
After a review of the case in the regional court, the panel concluded that the Aktobe region police department was guilty of the SUV's disappearance. They cited a law stating that "the person responsible for the safety of material evidence in a case is the person conducting the pre-trial investigation".
The regional court decided that by failing to ensure the car's safety, the Aktobe region police department must reimburse the owner for the vehicle's value.
"The police halted the investigation into the Lexus theft because they could not find the thief. Consequently, the body conducting the pre-trial investigation in the criminal case should have taken timely measures to return the vehicle to its owner, Gun. The regional police department of the Aktobe region was aware of the car's ownership, which was also reflected in the procedural documents," the regional court's ruling stated.
According to Oksana Gun's lawyers, because the police ignored the law, the compensation will come from the state budget. They claim that the money definitely will not be recovered from the individual police officers.
It is also reported that around 10 other cars held as material evidence have disappeared from the impound lot in a similar manner. Their owners are also pursuing legal action to obtain compensation for damages.
It is worth recalling that a resident of Aktobe, Askar Bostekov, found himself in a similar situation. In January 2020, he pawned his car with a three-month instalment plan to LLP 'Profitable Deposit'. It turned out he had fallen victim to a financial pyramid scheme.
LLP 'Profitable Deposit' bought property from clients on an instalment plan at an inflated price. Afterwards, clients were paid part of the transaction sum, and the property was sold below market value. Bostekov's car was no exception.
The Aktobe police found it and placed it in the impound lot as material evidence. However, after some time, it turned out that Bostekov's car had been given to the person the fraudsters had already sold it to - a certain Pangereyev.
Later, the court, hearing the case of the 'Profitable Deposit' financial pyramid, ordered that Bostekov's car be returned to him. Despite this, Pangereyev was in no hurry to return it to the legal owner.
Bostekov then contacted the police, but they claimed they could do nothing. In the view of law enforcement, Pangereyev is a bona fide purchaser, and any issues with him must be resolved in civil court.