A thief who stole a unique Bugatti Veyron from Switzerland before driving it over the border into Germany has been handed an import tax bill – of £320,000.
The unnamed Polish man, 27, was part of a three-strong gang who stole three luxury motors from a Swiss millionaire.
They then drove the cars through Germany en route to Poland but one of the gang members was arrested at the wheel of the Veyron after a police chase on the autobahn.
Because he had entered Germany from a non-EU country he was liable to pay a hefty import tax on the stolen vehicle.
Customs calculated the Bugatti Veyron was worth £1.1 million and are charging the car thief a ten per cent levy along with a 19 per cent import tax – totalling £320,000.
A statement from the German customs read: ”Because the vehicle came from outside the European Union it is classified as non-community goods and is therefore subject to importation tax.”
The saga began in May when the Polish thieves made off with a unique Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport ‘Sang Bleu’, Ferrari 599 GTB and BMW 7 Series from a property in Oberrieden, Switzerland.
They had to drive the high-performance vehicles through Germany to get home.
Police noticed the one-off Bugatti, capable of 253mph, on the A9 autobahn outside Bayreuth and tried to get the driver to pull over.
However, the thief had different ideas and accelerated away with a police helicopter bought into the chase.
He eventually pulled over and tried to escape the police cars and air support on foot, running across three lanes of oncoming traffic and into farmland.
But he was quickly apprehended and is awaiting extradition to Switzerland.
The driver of the BMW was also caught by police while the Ferrari driver dumped the car at a train station and is yet to be found.
All three cars were returned to the owner.
