Cork court: Man accused of stealing luxury cars arranged test drives with owners
A man with five different aliases who has been charged in connection with luxury car thefts is alleged to have used an Apple AirTag to track cars he allegedly wanted to steal. Picture: iStock
A man with five different aliases who has been charged in connection with luxury car thefts is alleged to have used an Apple AirTag to track cars he allegedly wanted to steal.
Vehicles were up for sale privately and 46-year-old Rosmarin Serban has admitted viewing them. Owners say they were told by the Romanian father-of-four he wanted to test-drive their vehicles before buying them.
He and an accomplice are then alleged to have collected the cars at their owners’ homes and then either cloned or swapped the spare keys for the cars they were test-driving. However, Mallow District Court also heard that Mr Serban was arrested in one of a number of cars he is alleged to have stolen.
The wrapping from a brand new AirTag found in one of the stolen cars was also found in the car. Some seven car keys were also found as well as an iPhone which was also linked to the AirTag, which he has admitted buying.
As well as that, gardaí say they found “messages from various injured parties” on the phone. The court, in a special sitting in front of Judge Joanne Carroll, also heard it took the gardaí three days to determine who Mr Serban was.
As well as discovering he was not Spanish, as he had claimed he was when arrested, detectives also discovered there was a European Arrest warrant out for him.
Arrested by Detective Denise Fitzgerald on April 5, he has been in garda custody ever since, but was applying through his lawyer Daithi O’Donnabhain for bail.
Mr O’Donnabhain said his client — who has been charged with 17 offences, including theft of four cars, the attempted theft of a fifth car and using a false ID — was the subject of “an extraordinary amount of custody”.
He told the court that while there was CCTV evidence of his client viewing the cars, there was “no evidence he stole them”. There was, he said, a “leap in law from viewing a car to stealing a car”.
In his application for bail, he also pointed out that gardaí — despite “exhaustive checks through Interpol” — have not been able to find a track record of any convictions in any other jurisdiction. Judge Joanne Carroll said: “There is strong evidence against him, while he enjoys the strong presumption of innocence”.
Detective Fitzgerald, of Fermoy Garda Station, said after she arrested and then cautioned him, “he made no reply to any charges”. The detective said she was opposing bail because of the “seriousness of the charges” against him.
“The vehicles are all high-end vehicles and all of high value,” she said.
This was a sophisticated operation.
She then proceeded to say how on April 3 Mr Serban and an accomplice went to a house in the village of Conna, near Fermoy, east Cork.
She said they took a €55,000 white 171-reg Audi that the house owner was selling for “a test-drive” and she said this is when it is suspected the spare key was taken and replaced with “a fake key”.
Detective Fitzgerald also said:
She said that on April 5, Mr Serban asked the car owner for another “viewing”. “It is our view that they planned to take control of the vehicle then,” Detective Fitzgerald said.
On his arrest, she said he was found with false identity documents. She said Mr Serban accepted he had viewed the Audi with his accomplice and had access to it.
The court heard details of four vehicles that were stolen between March 13 and April 5, and it heard how in most cases gardaí had obtained CCTV footage of Mr Serban at or near the cars.
They say he has also admitted to viewing the cars, which were taken from addresses in Kerry, Tipperary, Monaghan and Dundalk, as well as Cork. Detective Fitzgerald said: “It is our view that if Rosmarin is given bail, he will commit further offences.
Judge Carroll refused bail and remanded Mr Serban in custody until April 14 when he is due in Fermoy District Court.
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