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Criminal Investigation Bureau, National Police Agency

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News Releases

Publish Date:2024-08-30

Update Date:2024-09-03

Units:Criminal Information Division

Criminal Investigation Bureau Swept Counterfeit License Plates
一、Investigating Departments: Criminal Investigation Bureau(CIB) 2nd Investigation Corps, Crime Centers in central and southern Taiwan, and municipal and county (city) government police departments.
二、Time of Seizure: Between August 1, 2024 and August 10, 2024.
三、Location of Seizure: New Taipei City, Taoyuan City and others.
四、Suspects Arrested: 30 suspects including suspect Luo.
五、Spoils and evidence seized: 60 counterfeit license plates.
六、Case summary:
(一) In regard to recent increasing cases of selling and using counterfeit license plates, the Criminal Investigation Bureau(CIB) launched a nationwide “License Plate Clearing Project” on August 1 and reinforced investigation on selling and using counterfeit license plates with all the other municipal and county (city) government police departments. Currently, the CIB has arrested 30 people from 30 cases and seized 60 counterfeit license plates. Statistics shows that 187 people have been arrested with the total of 191 cases since the start of this year. Concerning the source of upstream manufacturing and selling, the CIB has arrested Gou and other suspects involving in the selling of counterfeit license plates and the CIB keeps investigating the source, so as to thoroughly disintegrate the chain of this crime industry.
 
(二) The patterns of offenders can be categorized into two types, which are “Purchased Car Mounted with Counterfeit License Plates” and “Car Owner Mounted Counterfeit License Plate.” “Purchase Car Mounted with Counterfeit License” refers to those people who once purchased vehicles without license plates (i.e. license plates of the car has been suspended and revoked) or collateralized cars, and they want to drive on the road, so they will rather bought the license plates from the same car model and same colors through the internet. “Car Owner Mounted Counterfeit License Plate” refers to car owners whose license plates have been suspended or revoked due to drunk driving, speeding, and other traffic violations, in order to continuously using their own cars, they would purchase the counterfeit license plates and mount them on the cars.

(三) As the increase in the number of cases of counterfeit license plates, the police has adopted the “investigation-prevention approach from the land to the air” strategy for the conduct of investigation and prevention. On the one hand, integrating AI patrol system to strengthen the automatic identification and traffic block of cars suspected of using counterfeit license plates on the road, so as to to enhance the crackdown capability. On the other hand, requesting the relevant platforms to remove the product of the online sellers whose license plates are reported to be counterfeit by the public. Moreover, the police keeps tracing and investigating the source of manufacturing and selling counterfeit license plates, in order to follow the prosecution by law. Currently, the CIB has collected over 64,000 car license numbers which have been suspended and revoked through public report, report data, and proactive tracing this year. The source of manufacturing, selling and using of counterfeit license plates has been analyzed and all the criminal intelligence will report to local police departments for simultaneous investigation.

(四) The CIB stressed that license plate is the driving permit issued by the highway authority and is also a special document. People manufacture and sell the counterfeit license plates without authorization will violate the crime of forging special documents in Article 212 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China, and shall be sentenced to maximum one year imprisonment. Moreover, according to Article 12 of the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act, such crime could be fined up to NT$10,800. As a result, The CIB called on the public not to push the luck and against the law.

(五)Case Description:
1.This June, a victim reported to the police about the suspiocious misuse of his license plate, as someone is driving the car under his name on the different highway but at the same time. The CIB then conducted an in-depth investigation and found out that the car with the counterfeit license plate seems to appear in Kaohsiung. Later, the CIB formed an investigation group with National Highway Fifth Police Brigade and apprehended the user Luo who was wanted for fraud at the parking lot in Gushan District, Kaohsiung on August 6, 2024, and two counterfeit license plates were seized at the scene. It was understood that after suspect Luo purchased the collateralized car, he realized that the license plate was revoked and he then purchased counterfeit license plate from an unknown seller online and mounted the license plate on the car. The criminal was interrogated and transferred for prosecution of forging a special document according to the Criminal Code. The wanted crime was then brought to the district prosecutor’s office for prosecution.
2.CIB discovered a transportation company in New Taipei City also used counterfeit license plates after analyzing the recent abnormal traffic records in ETAG. Moreover, in the early of this month, other cars owned by the same company were also seized by the Taoyuan police for using the counterfeit license plates. The CIB then formed an investigation group with the Tucheng Precinct of New Taipei City Police Department. The analysis of driving tracks showed that the car hid on day and came out at night, was suspected to avoid being stopped by the police. The investigation group tracked and investigated for days before grasping the movements of the car, and then blocked the car in Tucheng District, New Taipei City on August 13, 2024, when the driver Zeng was on the way home. The investigation group discovered at the scene that the license numbers printed on the car were changed and mounted with similar car numbers of the counterfeit license plates in an attempt to avoid detection. Based on the investigation, the original license plate of the car was revoked by the Motor Vehicles Office in 2021 due to overdue inspection. However, the company purchased counterfeit license plate online to continue the commercial use of the car. This case was transferred for prosecution of crime in forging a special document according to the Criminal Code. Moreover, the police further expands the investigation to track whether the company has other cars with counterfeit license plates.