Photo/Illutration Investigators from the Metropolitan Police Department and Kanagawa prefectural police enter the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Tokyo from its parking lot at 9:45 a.m. on Sept. 15 to raid the Bigmotor Co. headquarters located there. (Wataru Sekita)

Police raided the headquarters of scandal-hit Bigmotor Co. on Sept. 15 on suspicion of destruction of property in connection with clearing roadside trees on public roads in front of its stores, sources said.

The Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo and Kanagawa prefectural police conducted the raid in the morning on the headquarters located on the 20th floor of the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Tokyo's Minato Ward.

Dozens of investigators carrying cardboard boxes entered the building from the underground parking lot just before 10 a.m. in the morning. 

The raid follows others conducted by Kanagawa prefectural police on three Bigmotor stores in Kanagawa Prefecture on Sept. 6 and the Metropolitan Police Department on nine outlets in Tokyo on Sept. 8, both on the same charge.

In the greenery in front of the 12 stores, herbicide ingredients were detected and roadside trees had been cut down.

Bigmotor's president and vice president resigned on July 25 after allegations of fraudulent insurance claims surfaced.

On July 28, the transport ministry conducted on-site inspections at the company's 34 maintenance shops nationwide under the Road Transport Vehicles Law to determine whether improper repairs had been performed to inflate insurance costs.

The Financial Services Agency will begin an on-site inspections of Bigmotor and Sompo Japan Insurance Inc., which had business ties with the company, on Sept. 19 under the Insurance Business Law.

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