Barry Lawrence, owner of Mallorca Cruising, recently informed us of an apparent scam which is happening to cars arriving into Barcelona from Palma by Ferry, particularly those cars with UK registration plates. Berry commented “I first heard of this ‘puncture’ scam several years ago, and we are astonished that the authorities have not clamped down on it (it is obviously an organised gang and surely the police must know who is to blame).

The ferries from Palma both arrive at regular times in the early evening, and drivers heading for the Motorway North, taking the most direct route from the Ferry terminals, must pass along the Ronda Litoral to Port Vell and then past Port Olympic, where they decend the underpass to the main dual carriageway that feeds the motorways.

It is during this ‘overground’ section where there are numerous traffic lights that drivers are most vulnerable, it is only around 4 kms to the underpass but there are plenty of stop/starts along the way where a scooter rider can pull up alongside and his pillion can stab a rear tyre.”

We wanted to share this with our Islander readers who perform this journey, especially those with non Spanish plates. This has happened at least three times in recent months.

The transcript below was the account of a recent attack suffered by Kevin Parker, submitted to his insurance company. Kevin is a frequent visitor to Mallorca and is the owner of a boat in Alcudia.

“I was returning from Mallorca where I keep my yacht. I had driven down from Aberdeen in June 2015. Sharing the drive back to Aberdeen with me was a friend, David Wood. We were driving my Range Rover Vogue, registration number 5KAP.

We took the ferry from Palma to Barcelona, arriving in Barcelona at approximately 2030. We were driving to Girona where we had booked a hotel for the night before commencing the drive to Caen/Ouistreham the next day.

At approximately 2115 we were driving along Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes when I noticed the car’s tyre pressure monitoring system was indicating a low pressure alarm. At the same time a man on a scooter tapped on my window and was gesticulating at my offside rear tyre.

We pulled into a side street. I was somewhat uneasy with the situation: several people – perhaps five or six – started crowding around offering assistance. I firmly told them we did not require assistance. The man on the scooter reappeared suggesting we take the car to his friend’s garage. This was clearly an offer to be car-jacked and mugged so the offer was declined. I asked Dave to keep a look-out as my suspicions were that mugging was likely. I transferred our luggage from the boot to the backseat in order to provide access to the spare wheel. Once the luggage was transferred I used the remote control fob to lock the car doors – or so I thought. Please see my comments towards the end of this letter.

The spare wheel on a Range Rover is rather heavy so I asked Dave to assist me lifting it out. I jacked up the car and removed the ‘punctured’ wheel. Dave also assisted me with lifting the spare into place. During the wheel change various people were offering to help and were shining torches into our faces. This, I suspect, was a deliberate act to ruin our night vision and to distract us from the theft that was taking place in the background.

We fitted and secured the spare wheel and made our escape from what was a rather worrying situation.

A few moments later as we continued our drive towards Girona  I asked Dave if he could see my mobile phone which I’d left in one of the cup holders in the centre console. He could not see it and had a feel around for it with no success. I asked him if he could phone my number to help locate the phone. He reached around for his bag containing his phone only to find it wasn’t there. He then told me that all of our bags were no longer in the vehicle.

We discussed our options. I was reluctant to drive back into Barcelona as it was around 2230 by this time so we continued our drive towards Girona where I felt we could use the hotel as a base.

Fortunately, the hotel was close to Girona airport where I thought there would be a police station. We checked into the hotel, explained that our bags had been stolen and went to the police station where we gave statements and received crime reports. The two police officers were helpful, sympathetic and very professional. They visited my car and we examined the ‘punctured’ tyre where it was very apparent that the tyre had been slashed with a box cutter or similar.

We returned to the hotel and cancelled credit cards, debit cards etc. Dave’s passport was unfortunately in one of his bags.

As I had been sailing off Mallorca for quite a large part of the summer I had various effects with me including personal clothing and sailing clothing. I also had my laptop and two mobile phones. The laptop and phones are owned by my company and these will be claimed for separately on my company insurance.

I spend part of my time working from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates where I have an office. Certain possessions were purchased in the UAE including some optically corrected Rayban glasses that cost quite a lot of money. I also lost my UAE identification card, UAE driver’s licence as well as my UK driver’s licence.

As I travel frequently between the UK, the UAE and Spain I tend to empty my wallet and only keep the relevant debit cards, currency and driver’s licence for the location I am travelling to. The contents of the wallet along with other paraphernalia is kept in an internal side pocket of the Tumi tote bag that invariably accompanied me on my travels. There was approximately £170 in cash [I withdrew £200 on September 14 before I last left the UK] along with AED (Arab Emirates Dirhams) 1500. This comprised AED1000 that I withdrew from an ATM on September 16^th and AED500 that a friend had returned to me the evening before I departed from the UAE. The total Sterling equivalent of the AED is £266.

The question arises of how could the luggage have been stolen if I had locked the car during the wheel change? Because the Range Rover has a keyless entry system and the key fob was in my pocket, all a person would need do to unlock the doors would be to pull on the handle and the door would open. In other words, it’s pretty impossible to lock the car when one is working in close proximity to it. Not very satisfactory.”

Yours sincerely

Kevin Parker.