Criminals are buying up tens of thousands of German cars meant for the scrapyard and exporting them as they profit from and subvert a government scheme intended to bolster the sale of new cars, a German police trade union has warned.

Abuse of the car-scrapping scheme, which has been widely copied elsewhere in the world as an anti-recession measure, has become widespread, with an estimated 50,000 German cars sold illegally overseas since it was introduced, the BDK police professional organisation said on Wednesday.