UDON THANI - A total of 18 cars and pickup trucks and 35 motorcycles, all with fake registration documents, have been seized in separate police operations in the Northeast and Bangkok.
The seizures, which included two Mercedes-Benz cars, followed the arrest of four people allegedly involved in falsifying licence plates and registration documents during a raid on a house in Muang district of this northeastern province last month, Pol Maj Gen Peerapong Wongsamarn told a media briefing on Wednesday.
The two men and two women suspects are: air force corporal Pasa Pokhin-akkara, 28, his wife Kamolchanok, 29, Ms Wannapa Deeman, 20, and Kritsada Saengyotha. Many fake licence plates and vehicle documents pertaining to car registration and car tax payments were found in the house, he said.
The suspects had confessed to having falsified those documents and sold them to customers. They charged customers 3,000 baht for a pair of licence plates, 4,000 baht for a registration book and 1,000 baht for a car tax payment sticker.
Pol Maj Gen Peerapong said police had tracked down vehicles using the fake licence plates. Twelve vehicles had been seized in the Northeast and two Mercedes seized in Bangkok. These vehicles were worth over 50 million baht, the provincial police chief said.
The owners of those cars included government officials, teachers, public health officials, businessmen and former advisers to politicians, he said. They had purchased them with fake documents from auto pawn shops.
Most owners admitted they were aware the vehicles had false licence plates, but said the prices were cheap so they decided to buy them, said Pol Maj Gen Peerapong. The Mercedes Benz E 250 CGIs with fake licence plates were sold at 650,000-700,000 baht each, pickup trucks 400,000 baht each and other cars at 200,000-300,000 baht each.
Both buyers and sellers would face charges of falsifying documents and receiving stolen vehicles, he said.
Police have also seized 4 cars and 35 motorcycles from an auto pawn shop in Udon Thani. Owner Trairat Tangduangdee, 54, was arrested on charges of setting up the pawn shop without permission. The vehicles and their registration documents were seized for examination.
(Photo by Yuttapong Kamnodnae)
A senior police officer shows a fake car tax sticker and other documents during the media briefing in Udon Thani on Wednesday. (Photos by Yuttapong Kamnaodnae)