The owner of a Lamborghini Urus that was stolen in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, has  offered a reward of R200,000 for information leading to its recovery.

The luxury vehicle, with an estimated cost of R4m, disappeared on February 4, according to private investigator Anton Koen of NoJack Vehicle Tracking — a company that specialises in the retrieval of hijacked and stolen vehicles.  

The white vehicle has the registration plate JD89ZJ GP and engine number DHU000986.

Koen said there had been an increase in the theft of high-end vehicles and alluded to a scam.

“There is definitely a spike, we have two verified cases of high-end vehicles being taken around last week. There is a very sophisticated scam that these people use to lure the owners. They are very strategic and in many cases work with the dealership,” he told SowetanLIVE's sister publication TimesLIVE.

Koen said the perpetrators normally phoned the owners of the vehicles and alerted them to a problem with their vehicles. In some cases they would go to their homes or the vehicles would be hijacked.

In this case, the owner, who does not want to be identified, received a call from someone claiming to be from a dealership, saying there was a problem with his car and that a person from the “dealership” would come to his house to assess the problem. Someone arrived at his home and the owner gave his car keys to the person whom he believed to be from the dealership. Now his car is missing.

Koen said targeted vehicles were Bentleys, Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

He cautioned owners of similar vehicles against falling victim to the “scam” and applauded people who assisted with the search.

“I’ve received over 300 messages and calls in relation to this one vehicle. At the moment we are pursuing a lead of a person of interest who is in Mozambique ...” he added.

Gauteng acting police spokesperson Col Noxolo Kwenza was contacted for information but had not responded by the time of publication.