Some 45 people have filed official complaints to the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority about the car mileage scam, Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli said in parliament on Wednesday. 

Malta Today reported last week how hundreds of consumers have been sold Japanese cars with tampered mile gauges in a racket involving two used-car dealerships, Rokku and Tal-Qasab auto dealers. 

“If these allegations are true then they are truly shocking,” Farrugia Portelli, who has consumer affairs in her portfolio, said. 

“It is totally unacceptable if consumers have bought cars with tempered milage.” 

She said that she had asked the MCCAA for an update on reports from the public and that so far, 45 people who have been affected by the racket have made complaints with the authority. 

“I want to send a message that we have zero tolerance for the abuse of consumers and we will do everything we can to support the people affected by this.” 

She urged people who may have been affected by the scam to check whether their car’s mileage has been accurately reported and to come forward and complain formally to the authority. 

The scam, which runs back as early as 2019, saw the dealerships allegedly register cars imported from Japan with a lower mileage count than what they had actually accumulated. Malta Today reported that Transport Malta had received at least 300 reports of suspicious mileage counts. 

In a statement on Sunday, UVIA secretary-general Albert Fenech said that the two-car dealers involved had been suspended in relation to the suspected scam. 

Times of Malta has been flooded by accounts from people bitten by the alleged scam who are furious they had been sold a car with a  tampered mile count and demanding compensation.