UAE | Crime
Police zero in on fine evaders
Unscrupulous motorists apprehended
- By Aghaddir Ali, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 May 21, 2011
- Image Credit: Supplied
- Mohammad Saif Al Zafein
Dubai: The Dubai Traffic Police strike force has recovered Dh751 million in unpaid traffic fines since it was created two years ago, a senior police officer at the Traffic Department of Dubai police told Gulf News.
"The investigation team caught cars and drivers who have committed 1.2 million tickets and failed to pay them," Major-General Engineer Mohammad Saif Al Zafein, Director of the Traffic Department at Dubai Police, said.
He said the team made great efforts since its launch in middle of 2009 to apprehend offenders who evade the payment of their fines. "In some cases the offenders do not pay their fines for several years. Some others change the plate number of their cars in ways to trick the radar devices," he said.
During the first quarter of the year, the strike force was able to recover fines amounting to Dh184,583,
Al Zafein added the team managed to track down people people who have accumulated violations.
Confiscation
He said the team also confiscated offenders' vehicles and take the necessary action to force them to pay their fines
He added that the team discovered how unscrupulous vehicle owners tamper with their licence plates while some resort to changing the features and/or look of their vehicles by repainting the car's front side in a bid to trick the traffic department's radar.
Al Zafein said vehicle owners change the parameters of car plate number, including parts of the middle or reduce their numbers to two or three rather than five, or put a screw on the number zero to turn it into an 8, or put different plate numbers in front and rear, or erase the code and play with it, like putting a line on the code (E) to transform it into a (T) or modify the letter (H) to read (A) . He explained the team used undisclosed methods in tracking offenders who thought they could evade law enforcers
Among those caught was a motorist who placed a UAE emblem on a licence plate in order to conceal its real number.
Al Zafein meanwhile said, the General Department of Traffic at Dubai Police said the department is considering many proposals and procedures that aim to support plans to reduce traffic accidents.
- Dh741m: amount of unpaid traffic fines recovered
- 1.2m: traffic violation tickets issued to offenders
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