Vientiane authorities will start stricter inspections of vehicle number plates, as there continues to be an issue with fake or duplicated numbers.
Deputy Chief and Director of the Vientiane Traffic Police Department, Lieutenant Colonel Youttaphong Souvannasing said this issue is easy to solve when police find a vehicle using fake or same number plates.
Some criminals think that if they use government number plates the police will not check their vehicles, and have taken to manufacturing fake government plates. Police said that they check both private and government vehicles however a majority admitted that they are reluctant to stop vehicles bearing government or military plates.
The director of the Vientiane’s Vehicle Control Unit of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Mr. Nuanxay Phaxaysombath said “Currently there are over 700,000 vehicles registered with the unit, over 50 percent of them are motorcycles”.
“So far this year there have been about two to three cases of the vehicles using the same plates in the capital. Police are inspecting and sending information to tax officials to implement a new law”said Lieutenant Colonel Youttaphong.
Police said this problem is being exacerbated by the fact that some criminals have taken to manufacturing false number plates; carrying more than one set of number plates, which they switch as the situation requires.
“Normally, fake or copied number plates are not registered because it’s illegal. Recently there was an incident in Vientiane where two vehicles used the same number plates, but this was quickly inspected and solved.” he added.
Number plates are usually copied or stolen to avoid paying registration fees, licensing or for criminal activity. In the past year police have found a number of criminals have used government number plates to transport illegal contraband such as drugs, wood and other black market produce in a bid to evade authorities.
Police said criminals will use blue number plates and other fake number plates and it can be difficult to check if they are legitimate or not.This problem not only happens in Vientiane but also other provinces.
Source: Vientiane Times
