An increasing number of residents own private cars. Perhaps one day, you will suddenly discover while driving that a car in front of you has the same license plate as yours; or perhaps one day you receive a traffic fine for an offense you didn’t commit; or even worse, one day the police come to inquire about your car being stolen…
This is not an exaggeration. Every motor vehicle must have "one car, one plate, one certificate." However, in recent years, there have been many instances of multiple plates for one car, and multiple cars using the same plate – known as "cloning" licenses. From March to July this year, the Huaiyin Traffic Police Department investigated over 100 cases of forged license plates and cloned license offenses. They legally impounded 87 suspicious vehicles and confiscated over 100 sets of fake license plates and certificates. Some car owners are still unaware that their license plates have been cloned by others.
On July 2nd at 11:00 AM, Deputy Director Shang Jian of the Huaiyin Traffic Police Department was patrolling near Xingji Bridge in Huaiyin District when he noticed a parked sedan by the roadside. The car's license plate color seemed off, and it lacked the required fixed screws. Additionally, the car did not have an annual inspection sticker on its windshield.
After checking online, Shang Jian found problems with the car. Its engine number and chassis number did not match the records online. The initial registration date had been altered from 1995 to 1997. The owner had forged the license plate and cloned another vehicle’s documentation. The car with the cloned license plate was immediately seized by the police.
Shang Jian told reporters that during routine inspections, they discovered that some private cars were using forged license plates and driving permits, cloning other vehicles' documents, and keeping spare fake license plates inside the car. In mid-July, the police caught a car using a fake license plate. Inside the car, they found four sets of fake plates. The driver would change plates depending on whether he was driving on highways, entering parking lots, or driving within the city.
Some car owners obtain fake license plates through improper channels after acquiring others' vehicle information. Their purpose is to avoid punishment for violations such as running red lights or speeding since the drivers use fake plates which make them untraceable. There are also those who hang fake plates to evade certain fees.
Private car owner Mr. Liu said in an interview that if a cloned car gets caught by an electronic eye, it doesn't penalize the cloner but rather the real owner. If an accident occurs, like a hit-and-run, the real owner might bear legal responsibility if they cannot provide strong evidence.
As more and more cars enter households, some lawbreakers have targeted motor vehicles, equipping stolen cars with convincing license plates and relevant documents to facilitate their sale.
In mid-June, Shang Jian and his colleagues stopped a Santana sedan with the license plate number LuA-C2XXX at the Jing'er-Weishier intersection. After verifying the car's engine number and chassis number and cross-referencing it online, they found that the car matched the basic details of a LuF-G6XXX Santana sedan reported stolen in Yantai in March. Subsequently, the police found the LuF-G6XXX license plate and driving permit in the trunk of the car, leading to its lawful seizure along with the driver. Later, the Huaiyin Public Security Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Team confirmed that this car had been stolen in Yantai.
According to the driver Qin Mou's confession, two months ago, he bought this car for 5,000 yuan at a low price outside an automobile trading market in the western suburbs of Jinan. Based on the clues provided, the Huaiyin police successfully arrested a criminal gang led by suspects Xu Mou and Zhang Mou who were involved in theft and resale of cars. This gang stole and resold over 20 cars in just one year.
The police explained that cloned license plates on stolen or smuggled cars can lead to terrifying consequences: some people dare to buy black-market cars at low prices, and some criminals stealing vehicles may be encouraged to commit more crimes because they know the stolen cars are easy to sell, thus forming a vicious cycle.
At the Huaiyin Traffic Police Department, Shang Jian is a well-known expert in identifying cloned license plates. Just from March to July this year, he and his colleagues investigated over 100 cases of using forged license plates and cloned plates, legally impounding 87 suspicious vehicles and confiscating over 100 sets of fake license plates and certificates.
The reporter saw that the fake license plates seized by the traffic police were mostly from areas like LuA, LuB, LuF, and LuP. These plates looked very realistic, making it difficult for ordinary people to distinguish their authenticity. Yesterday, the reporter checked the numbers of 10 license plates seized by the traffic police on the motor vehicle violation inquiry system and surprisingly found that 9 of the plates were in normal use, belonging either to private cars or company cars. These owners were unaware that their plates had been cloned.
According to Shang Jian, there are currently two types of cloned cars. One type is due to not having completed registration procedures, so the car does not have a plate and uses someone else's plate instead, mainly involving stolen cars. The other type involves hanging a fake plate on top of the real one, allowing the user to escape punishment while innocent people are penalized. Moreover, if such cars are involved in accidents and flee the scene, it significantly complicates investigations.
“During inspections, the traffic police check the car's chassis number and engine number, and even if the fake plate looks genuine, issues can still be detected,” Shang Jian told reporters. Article 96 of the Road Traffic Safety Law stipulates that upon discovering cloned license plate behavior, public security traffic management departments will confiscate and impound the vehicle, imposing fines ranging from 200 to 2000 yuan. If it constitutes a crime, criminal responsibility will be pursued according to law.
However, the public security department faces numerous challenges in combating fake license plates. Some cloned cars themselves are problematic, such as smuggled cars, assembled cars, or stolen vehicles. Once discovered, the cloned car owners often abandon the car and flee without a word. Therefore, relying solely on the public security department to combat cloned vehicles is insufficient. Combating cloned license plates requires coordinated actions from various departments such as transportation, taxation, and industry and commerce. (Reported by Yin Yuguo) Editor-in-Charge: Song Xianxia