Customs impounded Bike in Argentina
Hi All
At the moment i'm following the case of an American guy living in Argentina for the past 2 years, he bought a 2001 BMW 650 Dakar from a fellow American travailing in Argentina back in the summer of 2005. The title for the bike is in the new owners name, but the temporary import paper is in the previous owners name. The bike was ridden last year for 10 day and then went in to storage and forgotten about, untill the owner decided to take a weekend trip to Uruguay.
Here is were the problems start.
The bike was impounded by the customs at the boarded as an illegal import because the temporary import paper was a differnt name than on the title, and also because the 8 month temorary import time had run out by 10 months.
At the moment there is talk of a fine of 40 to 50% of the bikes market value(based on Argentinan import price) and a separate fine the expiry of the temporary import paper, so far this works out at far more than the bike is worth.
What i ask is this, is this a case the guy has a chance of winning if he takes it to court and trys to fight it, or would he be better off saving his money and just saying good by to his bike, its a hard thing to lose your bike but how far can you go. Your thoughts please. Skip
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