Turkish teacher ‘sells same car to 80 people’ before vanishing with 50 million liras

HATAY

A teacher in the southern Turkish province of Hatay has been accused of selling the same car to 80 people before vanishing with the 50 million Turkish Liras he was paid in advance. 

Eighty locals of Hatay’s Kırıkhan province have filed criminal complaints against the teacher, who was identified only as Emre K., local media reported on Aug. 1.

According to the complaints filed to the prosecutor, the teacher also claimed he had a car dealer, promising to sell them the vehicles seized by the government, which he had acquired in auctions for as low as 25,000 Turkish Liras below their market price.

After the first deliveries that were below the market price, Emre K. received dozens of more orders.

There were no more delivieries afterwards, though, as the teacher emptied his house and fled with the millions of liras he had collected as advance payments.

“I saw the photos of a car and paid him 1 million Turkish Liras to buy 23 of them. We later realized he had sold the same car to dozens of other people,” said Necmettin Yar, one of the complainants.

“He wasted our time for 10 months and then fled,” said Yar.

Attorney Mutlu Bozkurt said Emre K. was later apprehended by police but was released pending trial.

“There are many more victims who have yet to file criminal complaints,” he said.