News
Police warn: Check vehicle papers
Motor vehicle registration certificates that went missing from the Motor Traffic Department (MTD) more than three years ago could still be in circulation and being used fraudulently, the Police Fraud Bureau warned this week.
The warning came after a major racket in selling these certificates for sums varying from Rs. 5,000-100,000 was uncovered by the Fraud Bureau following a complaint by a vehicle owner who found that he was the victim of a fraud.
“A resident of Kotte had purchased a vehicle through a broker from Dehiwala. He had collected the relevant documents from the broker and called the Motor Traffic Department to register his vehicle. At the Department the officials acknowledged that the certificate was original but its contents were false,” Officer in Charge of the Fraud Bureau Chief Inspector P.P.A. Wijenayaka told the Sunday Times.
The owner had paid Rs. 1.4 million for the Toyota Corolla and was unable to get the vehicle transferred to his name as the registration contents had been forged.
Officer in Charge of the Crimes division of the Fraud Bureau, Inspector of Police H.E. Upul, told the Sunday Times that initially police had taken into custody the woman who had met the car broker through a car sales centre.
“The woman told us that she had used the vehicle for about three months after renting it from a car salesyard owner. Accordingly the salesyard owner, identified as Appuge Ruwan from Borella, was arrested but he said the vehicle didn’t belong to him and the actual owner was Abdul Rafiq of Dehiwala,” the officer said.
During investigations it was revealed that Rafiq had changed his name to “Aravinda Dissanayaka”.
Police officers hold up a forged certificate of registration (inset). Pix by Mangala Weerasekera
Rafiq, in addition to the brokering of vehicle sales, had admitted involvement in forging vehicle documents, assisted by a person known as Jatila Weerasekara of Niwasipura, Ja-Ela.
“We got Rafiq to call Jatila and say that two more original certificates of registration were needed. Accordingly Jatila came with the two certificates to a location in Colombo, and was arrested. He had in his possession rubber stamps of the Motor Traffic Department and the Police, and cards similar to the National Identity Card,” the officer added.
Jatila had claimed that he had obtained the original certificates from a driver attached to the MTD. Immediately, Jatila was told to call his contact to get two more certificates. His contact told him that if he called over at the department at 6.30pm he could collect the originals.
Later in the day Fraud Bureau officials who accompanied Jatila in civvies arrested the driver. A search of his locker revealed 18 more original certificates.
Though the MTD employee did not reveal who had given him the original certificates investigations show that a batch of some 1000 certificates had gone missing from the department and a complaint had been lodged with the Borella police.
Motor Traffic Commissioner-General S.H. Harischandra said that the certificates had gone missing before he assumed office.
Officer in Charge of the Fraud Bureau Chief Inspector P.P.A. Wijenayaka
Investigations at the time had shown that the certificates had been stolen after a break-in at the vehicle division.
“We could not find out who was responsible. But we delisted all these certificates by blocking the serial numbers in the computer system. This current detection was made because the checks showed that the number had been blocked,” he explained.
He said that the department had been looking for these certificates; whenever anybody brought in a registration certificate there was a check for these numbers.
“Prospective buyers could check with us whether the certificate of registration was genuine or whether it was one of those blacklisted,” he said.
Certificates no. BX-0017001 to BX-0018000 have been blacklisted, Mr Harischandra said.
The Department is hoping to introduce a new registration certificate along with a plastic card holding the vehicle data as an additional security feature.
Fraud Bureau Director SSP Ananda Alwis told The Sunday Times that investigations had revealed that there was fraudulent activity regarding the registration of vehicles at the MTD. A group from outside was encouraging a section of staff to engage in corrupt
Fraud Bureau Director SSP Ananda Alwis
practices.
“We find that some of the MTD officers are reluctant to make statements to the police as they claim that their lives would be at risk,” he said.
‘Measures should be taken to prevent third parties acting as intermediates helping to attend to matters at the Motor Traffic Department. There are persons who are filling the forms and collecting money,” he said.
He said that he had held a meeting with the Commissioner-General over these issues.
SSP Alwis said people who rent out their cars should be watchful about their vehicles as there were several instances of frauds regarding these vehicles having taken place.