[Fx14]

Of late, have been observing the number plates of vehicles just to gauge how many older vehicles have HSRP plates or not and noticed a difference in the front and rear number plates of a couple of vehicles.

The anomaly seemed to be intentional as in the case of one scooter illustrated below, the rear number plate was the old painted number plate (probably the genuine number), while the front number displayed was a fresh sticker on the front body panel of the scooter with the (intended?) mismatch in the number.

To discount any human error, which owner would not be able to notice the difference in the number of their old vehicle?


Modus operandi :

Front number (sticker on the front panel - probably fake):
MH-0x-xx-7074

Rear number (painted number plate - probably genuine):
MH-0x-xx-7470

Also observed that the rider and pillion were not wearing helmets despite the fact that cops in the area were clicking photos of the front number plates of 2-wheelers where both riders and pillions were not wearing helmets. This only reconfirmed that they were intentionally using the fake front number knowing that they would not be fined.


Why would they attempt this?

Of late, traffic cops are more than happy to just click a photo on their mobile of the front number plate of vehicles of traffic offenders and let them go, as against the earlier practice of checking all vehicle documents and collecting fines on the spot. They don't even check the rear number plate.

This may have enlightened such fraudulent vehicle owners to change the front number of the vehicle to pass the buck to another vehicle owner.


It's appalling to observe that there are vehicle owners willing to stoop to such behavior and break laws while passing the risk / fines intentionally to another unsuspecting vehicle owner. The amount of fine is miniscule compared to the cost of the vehicle, unless the owner is intending to be a regular offender.

This fraud can be easily detected by the cops if they start checking both front and rear numbers of vehicles as well as the vehicle documents.

[warrioraks]

Ingenuity at it’s worst. People indulging in such practices are practically getting into identity impersonation. Such cases when caught need to be treated as a serious crime and not as a mere traffic offense. Few years of jail should be a minimum.

[MT_Hyderabad]

Sorry to break this conspiracy theory, but this usually happens when the front and rear number plates are printed at two different times.

Most number plate printers (also called Radium works) use the other number plate, or verbal communication from the owner/driver to create the broken number plate and makes a transcription error sometimes.

We should be careful while getting number plates printed. I will also recommend checking your number plates for such errors, now.

Originally Posted by Fx14

To discount any human error, which owner would not be able to notice the difference in the number of their old vehicle?

Cars with clearly written type of fuel (Diesel/Petrol) also gets filled with the other fuel. These are 4 digit numbers and human error is very much possible. I myself get confused sometimes that my car's number is 9658 or 9568.

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

Sorry to break this conspiracy theory

This fake number plate is an actual problem. Maybe in this case mentioned by OP, it could have been a human error.
But there have been a lot of cases reported in media where someone just changed the number imprinted on the plate and brazenly went about breaking whatever rules they could. In the meanwhile, the actual owner of that number had to deal with piling challans, RTOs, traffic police and eventually courts to sort everything out.

[MT_Hyderabad]

Originally Posted by warrioraks

This fake number plate is an actual problem. Maybe in this case mentioned by OP, it could have been a human error.
But there have been a lot of cases reported in media where someone just changed the number imprinted on the plate and brazenly went about breaking whatever rules they could. In the meanwhile, the actual owner of that number had to deal with piling challans, RTOs, traffic police and eventually courts to sort everything out.

Yes, this is true. It is intentional number plate tampering of both the front and rear number plates. However, what we are discussing here is just the difference between front and rear number plates.

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

These are 4 digit numbers and human error is very much possible.

Hope you are right. It would make sense if the rider and pillion were compliant with the rules (wearing helmets) when cops were checking in the vicinity.

However, their behavior was more of defiance and looked like they wanted to be caught to test if their ploy was working.

Originally Posted by warrioraks

In the meanwhile, the actual owner of that number had to deal with piling challans, RTOs, traffic police and eventually courts to sort everything out.

Exactly. IIRC most CCTV cameras for signal / stopping violations too capture the front number.

Also, during the helmet drive the same day in that area, traffic cops were checking and penalizing people by clicking photos of only the front number with the rider in full view.

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

Yes, this is true. It is intentional number plate tampering of both the front and rear number plates. However, what we are discussing here is just the difference between front and rear number plates.

If both were tampered, then the original vehicle documents will not tally at all and confirm a criminal intent.

If on the other hand there is a difference in only one number plate, the owner when caught could try to get away by blaming it on human error by the vendor, just like we are thinking. This could well be the intention of the owner.

To give a benefit of doubt of such human error, such vehicles should be caught and made to clear all pending challans against both the number plates.

[urbanzameendar]

Originally Posted by MT_Hyderabad

These are 4 digit numbers and human error is very much possible. I myself get confused sometimes that my car's number is 9658 or 9568.

A hotelier friend of mine approved a misprint of their reception and reservation mobile number in all of their printed and digital stationery, including their Inauguration Invitation.

The number printed was 9826-xx-xxxx instead of 9825-xx-xxxx.

They had to print small stickers with the actual number to cover it up, even before the Inauguration.

[Jeroen]

Here in the Netherlands there is a racket with fake registration plates. Basically, they will replicate a registration plate of a known car. They will look for an identical car and replicate that plate.

All the traffic fines will now go to the owner of the plate. In the Netherlands the owner of the car is responsible and liable under all circumstances for all traffic offences. It is not sufficient to proof you were not in the car, you have to proof it is not your car.

Dutch plates are a little more difficult to replicate than most. But they still can be replicated. It happened to me some years ago on my company car. I was getting speeding tickets and parking tickets of places where I had never been. One speeding ticket caught my eye, I happen to recognise the date. It was the first day of our holiday in the Caribbean to visit my wife’s family. We were in a 747 over the Atlantic Ocean at the time the speeding offence was committed. So then I checked a few more tickets I had received earlier. All impossible to have been me. Problem was on a company car, the lease company as the owner is held liable. So they need to pay all fines. In the lease agreement the driver commits to refund them all, plus an administrative fee. My employer clears the outstanding amounts automatically from the monthly pay roll and might not always tell you. So I had not really noticed.

In the end, I ended up in court. I could proof my company car was slightly different from the car in the photos taken by the speed camera. I had a letter from the dealer to back up my claim, which ultimate persuaded the judge I was innocent.

It can be a real pain and a damn nuisance.

Jeroen

[Fx14]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Here in the Netherlands there is a racket with fake registration plates. Basically, they will replicate a registration plate of a known car. They will look for an identical car and replicate that plate.

It may be just a matter of time till such fraudulent vehicle owners resort to this practice here too.

This fraud could be easily avoided by the earlier local practice of checking all vehicle documents and collecting fines on the spot.

Alas, technological advances (image based e-challans) do have their own loopholes to exploit, resulting in a lot of pain to the unsuspecting victims.

[batish]

Originally Posted by Fx14

It may be just a matter of time till such fraudulent vehicle owners resort to this practice here too.

This fraud could be easily avoided by the earlier local practice of checking all vehicle documents and collecting fines on the spot.

Alas, technological advances (image based e-challans) do have their own loopholes to exploit, resulting in a lot of pain to the unsuspecting victims.

True! People do resort to these practices here. It's just that these things are not publicised much in print media, online media etc.

The only solution to this menace/fraud is High Security Registration Plates. These things are a bit difficult to copy and even if they are falsely printed on similar fonts, the serial numbers of these plates cannot be as they are registered on VAHAN Database. So before issuing a challan, the cameras must verify the serial number of these plates with their database and then issue the challan.

Cops in Chandigarh do not even spare a second to issue a challan for Non HSRP Vehicles.

[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by Fx14

It may be just a matter of time till such fraudulent vehicle owners resort to this practice here too.

Well it has already happened. If I recall one incident correctly (which was posted on TBHP only), a gang robbed a bank using a stolen XUV500 and used the registration number from another XUV500 (same color) which was listed on OLX. The police came knocking on the doors of the owner.

Don't recall the specifics correctly, but the police were able to catch that gang and the owner didn't have to go through a lot of fuss (I believe the owner had already moved abroad or something).

[Newtown]

It brought back a memory when I saw the picture of this article on the News page of T-BHP. This happed to me well over a decade back.

I had recently taken delivery of a Skoda Fabia from a popular dealer in the South of Mumbai. All was well (this happened in the 2nd week of ownership) until one day I tried to find my car in the parking lot of an organization where I had a meeting. After getting back from the meeting, the valet service asked me for my car number. I did not quite remember it so checked the SMS from the dealer that had the number on it.

The valet promptly came back and said they did not have a car with that number in the lot. As expected I was in shock and asked them to take me to the lot. When I walked around I spotted my car and pointed it out to the valet. They asked me to check the number plate. Sure enough it was different from the number I had provided them.

I promptly called the dealer asking what the correct number was. To which they admitted that the plates on my car were wrongly lettered at their showroom.

[Gypsian]

Wrong number plates are quite often affixed on the vehicles to mislead investigation authorities. A lot of such anomalies are coming to light in recent times.
Regarding the penal clause a penalty of up to Rs 5000 will be imposed on defaulters (as per section 192 (1) of the MV Act for using false or wrong number plates.

[Everlearner]

Just read the below news today. Couldn't really digest there are so many vehicles on road with tampered number plates

Hyderabad: Traffic Police files charges for more than 15,000 offenders for number plate tampering case
https://www.timesnownews.com/hyderab...ticle-93024083

[sandeepsc]

I have been victim of this fraudulent practice twice from the same vehicle. I had received two e-challan for No parking offence for the scooty whose number resembled to my bike number. The number was purposely erased some of its portion so it was appearing similar to my number. Luckily the e-challan had the photograph attached to it so I could prove to police that I have a Yamaha bike and e-challan is of Suzuki Access Scooty. All two e-challan were cancelled from my bike by traffic cops. Both time I had to mail to traffic police and explain the situation.