Thousands of Italian motorists have been reclaiming the cost of scrapping their old, polluting, vehicle under the Italian Finance 2007 programme, while in fact, the cars had not been scrapped at all.

Instead of being demolished, the old cars, usually of categories euro zero or euro one, had been sent abroad and sold in Bulgaria, Panorama.it reported.

An international fraud with vehicles, which had been scrapped only on paper to receive the incentives of the Finance 2007 programme, was discovered by the Guardia di Finanza and the State Forestry department of Ancona in Italy. "An unprecedented scale scam," Panorama.it commented.

An estimated 35 000 cars had been loaded in the port city of Doric and reached Bulgaria after a stopover in the Greek port of Patras.

Forty-five car demolition companies in nine regions in central and northern Italy were said to be involved in the fraud.

In addition to circumventing the rules for VAT for exports, claiming compensation for scrapping cars and disposing of car components of cars that had not been scrapped at all, the cars had been resold in eastern Europe at a minimum of 500 euro, Panorama.it said.

Besides in Bulgaria, the cars had also been resold in Romania, Poland and Greece.