‘Hacker thief’ techniques alleged in stolen Holden case

Paul Gibbons is charged with stealing expensive Holdens, including a 2010 Holden HSV GTS worth $80,000. Photo / Supplied

An Auckland property manager has been charged with stealing expensive sports cars using “hacker thief” techniques.

Paul Richard Gibbons appeared in Waitakere District Court yesterday to face six theft charges in relation to four high-end Holden cars, one worth $80,000, and two trailers to carry them.

Paul Gibbons

Police also laid six alternative charges of receiving stolen goods, essentially alleging Gibbons either stole the vehicles himself or took control of them after someone else did.

The 39-year-old, who manages rental properties for Barfoot & Thompson, was released on bail and is due back in court next month.

His arrest comes nearly two months after Waitemata detectives released a photograph of a 2010 Holden HSV with a "super-charged Walkinshaw engine" worth $80,000.

The police had a warrant to seize the car as the chassis had been imported as a wrecked and written-off vehicle from Australia, but believed the car was remodelled in New Zealand - using suspected stolen car parts, including the engine.

This is known as a "re-birth" where registration plates and chassis numbers of legitimate, but often damaged or imported, cars are placed on stolen cars to conceal their true identities.

Around 20,000 cars are stolen each year in New Zealand and one-third of them are never found because they are "re-birthed", or stripped for parts in illegal "chop shops" which sell them to unsuspecting buyers or ship them overseas. Just one in five car thefts are solved.

The Weekend Herald understands the police allege Gibbons, who also owns a car wrecking and painting business in West Auckland, used what is referred to overseas as "hacker thief" techniques, where thieves are able to obtain codes and duplicate keys to unlock the vehicles.

Diagnostic tools are then plugged into the dashboard to access the car's computer and the duplicate key reprogrammed in order to start the stolen car.

* Update: Paul Gibbons pleaded guilty on October 12 2016 to receiving three stolen cars. The theft charges were withdrawn. He was sentenced to home detention for one year and 250 hours community work. The stolen cars were returned to the insurance companies.