I had a question posed by one of our CID agents. He has a lien holder who has about 50+ motor vehicles where after application, TXDMV revoked the owner's original title and reissued the title to the lien holder as the owner. The lien holder, however, can't locate the vehicles in many cases. Now the lien holder wants the vehicles to be treated as stolen (put them in TCIC, etc.) and the original owners prosecuted for MV theft. How do you treat these cases? Civil? Criminal? Given the complexity of these cases, I am not sure the vehicles should be considered "stolen," although in most cases it appears there might a case for hindering a secured creditor. Thoughts??

Janette A