Cars seized for failed finance ‘ownership’, forged plates

The vehicles were presented to the press at Region 8 Police Station, at the northern end of Phuket, yesterday (Feb 8).

Region 8 Police Deputy Commander Maj Gen Saksira Phuekam explained that the cars seized were from a variety of cases, including a pickup seized in Nakhon Sri Thammarat and a Ford car seized on Koh Samui, where the suspects were charged for forging government documents.

Other cases involved the “owners” fleeing while the cars were being inspected by officers, who later discovered that the licence plates and tax stickers were fake.

Officers are in the process of tracking down the suspects in order to prosecute them, Maj Gen Saksira said.

Maj Gen Saksira urged people buying used cars to buy from a trusted source. “Check the ownership transfer documents completely, and ownership must be completely transferred via the Department of Land Transport every time,” he said.

“You should not buy a used car from a Facebook page that has advertisements for the sale of pawned cars [sic] that are still under financing because most of the cars that are advertised for sale have been acquired incorrectly, such as lack of payment of installments, or it is simply a a stolen car,” he added.

Maj Gen Saksira also pointed out that using fake license plates comes under a charge of forgery and the use of forged official documents, which carries a penalty of up to five years imprisonment or a fine of up to B100,000, or both.