Costly police mistake towing away Aston Martin led to €19,331 state payout
Alleged negligence in the removal of a luxury car several years ago, relating to a corruption case, cost the state over €17,000, Eesti Ekspress reported.
Last month, the Ministry of Finance compensated the owner of a British-made Aston Martin DB9 convertible to the total of €17,673 for damage which may have been caused by the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) when it was removed.
The 2006 convertible, flood-damaged in the U.S. and bought there in 2012 for €23,171 by a firm called KTK Tehnika OÜ, was imported to Estonia the same year — Estonia lacked an Aston Martin dealership at the time — but the owner claimed compensation near market value, ultimately getting around three-quarters of the purchase price back from the Estonian state.
Following its import, between 2015 and 2017, Tallinn city transport maintenance deputy head Jaanus Ving allegedly used the grey Aston Martin, which had less than a thousand kilometers on the clock, also hoping to refurbish it cheaply for resale.
In 2018, Ving, who at the time was a member of the Social Democratic Party, was investigated by the Central Criminal Police over alleged bribery, during which a number of vehicles were seized from him, including the Aston Martin of the story.
While the criminal case concluded in 2022 with a conviction and the return of most of their property under a plea deal, by that time, the car had stood in one place for four and a half years without maintenance, adding to the issues it already had when imported.
While state prosecutor Kaire Jaakson rejected most of the KTK Tehnika OÜ's lawyer's demands, she acknowledged that the PPA erred when towing the Aston Martin in 2018, notably failing to log its technical condition, and she also noted that "there is no overview of whether and what damage the vehicle had at the time it left the owner's possession," therefore ordering the state to compensate for any potential damage from long-term neglect.
As a result and in December 2025, the ministry transferred €19,331 to KTK Tehnika, plus €1,658 in legal costs.
In the original court case, KTK Tehnika and company owner Kaspar Keelmann were alleged to have paid bribes to Ving.
Moreover, the state previously spent hundreds of thousands of euros in the city transport case, including €424,043 overall and even the renovation of a bird-droppings-soiled Lamborghini.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
