Raid on a gang that was forging license plates, found 1 license plate used to impersonate 26 cars

Bangkok, The Central Investigation Bureau announced the results of the operation 'Suppressing Illegal Vehicles Running All Over the City', breaking up a ring that forges illegal license plates and uses fake license plates. Police said they found one license plate that was used on as many as 26 cars. Pol. Lt. Col. Sophon Saraphat, Deputy Commander of the Central Investigation Bureau, together with the Department of Land Transport, announced the operation to 'suppress illegal vehicles running all over the city', seizing 23 cars and motorcycles with fake license plates, as well as finding many illegal license plates. Following the officers' knowledge that there was an offense using fake license plates to disguise the transport of illegal goods and avoid inspection, such as transporting drugs, smuggling foreigners, and transporting weapons, the investigation was expanded to the network that was secretly using fake license plates, tax plates, and registration manuals before searching a house in Mueang Loei Dist rict, which resulted in the discovery of license plate numbers, tax plate information, car brand information, and car body information that were more than 2,000 items of offense, and the offenders admitted to forging documents and everything in order to send them to customers who ordered them specifically, but they tried to use license plate numbers that were mostly empty and not in the Department of Land Transport's system. An examination of over 2,000 records with the database of the Department of Land Transport found that many fake license plates were blank and did not pass the numbering or register with the Department of Land Transport. Importantly, one of the license plates that was examined was found to have been used on as many as 26 cars, and all of them did not belong to the same owner. As a result, the investigation is still underway to track down the owner for prosecution. Meanwhile, the investigation also found that most of the cars are owned by finance companies. The owners will hire-purchase f rom the finance companies and pawn the cars. Some intend to sell them, and some are stolen and sold. Buyers who do not know that they are foreclosed cars are sold as fake cars. However, some buyers already know that they are foreclosed cars, so they transfer the ownership because they want a cheap car. Or worse, they use it to do illegal things. In this regard, the officer warned that if anyone knows that the license plate is fake but still uses it, it will be considered a crime of using a fake license plate, which is punishable by a fine of 2,000 baht, and for forging official documents, which is punishable by imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years and a fine of 10,000-100,000 baht. Source: Thai News Agency