The head office employee who was arrested for instructing the cutting down of a roadside tree in front of a used car sales company "Big Motor" store is the only person in charge of patrolling and inspecting stores in various locations, and is conducting regular inspections of stores at the site. It was revealed through interviews with police and other sources that he had a lot of influence. It has been pointed out that poor inspection results led to demotion, and police are investigating the possibility that the trees were ordered to be felled using influence.
Suspect Toshiyuki Kambara (51), an employee of Big Motor, is suspected of damaging property for instructing him to cut down a roadside tree in front of the Kawasaki store in Kawasaki City two years ago when he was working at the company's headquarters. I was arrested.
At the time, the suspect was the only person in charge of the ``Environmental Improvement Promotion Committee,'' which patrolled and inspected stores in various locations, and interviews with police revealed that he had a certain degree of influence over the stores in the area.
A report compiled by a special investigation committee set up by the company points out that poor performance and response to "environmental maintenance inspections" such as cleaning and tidying could have led to demotion.
In this process, ``Headquarters general managers, deputy managers, and others sometimes went out of their way to visit target stores in advance to confirm the situation and prepare for the actual inspection by management,'' and ``They spent several days working on repairs while neglecting repair work.'' A case was introduced in which the person was cleaning and tidying up the property.
Since the suspect also visited the store himself, the police suspect that he was instructing the felling due to the influence of the head office, and will investigate further.
Damage situation and arrest history
In Kanagawa Prefecture,
trees were cut down in front of three Big Motor stores
: Kawasaki store in Kawasaki city
, Hiratsuka Shinomiya store in Hiratsuka city ,
and Fujisawa store in Fujisawa city .
It is known that herbicides were sprayed.
The reason why the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters initially filed a case regarding the damage to the street trees in front of the Kawasaki store appears to have been because they determined that there had been specific instructions from the head office regarding the felling.
Six Azalea trees were found cut off in front of the Kawasaki store, but in August last year, Big Motor told Kawasaki City, which manages the street trees, that the ``Environmental Improvement Promotion Committee'' at the head office had been appointed as the store manager. "I ordered the felling," he said.
It is believed that the store manager further instructed the employees to cut their hair.
Based on these explanations from company officials and business records seized in a series of searches, police suspect that the suspect, who was at the time serving as the head office's ``environmental improvement promotion committee'', ordered the logging. I made an arrest.
This is the first time that an arrest has been made in relation to the cutting down of trees and the spraying of herbicides in front of Big Motor stores across the country, and police have determined that it is necessary to clarify the actual circumstances of the instructions. It seems that.
Meanwhile, Kanagawa Prefecture has also issued a complaint regarding roadside trees in front of stores in Hiratsuka City and Fujisawa City that appear to have died after being sprayed with herbicides.
Police are continuing to investigate, including investigating whether there is a causal relationship between the herbicide and the withering.