Dubai: Dubai Traffic Police have issued 3,718 fines for unclear licence plates from the beginning of this year up until July 3.
Colonel Saif Muhair Al Mazroui, Director of Dubai Traffic Police, said that 125 vehicles, carrying UAE and non-UAE number plates, were fined for having unclear or obscured number plates.
He said that a special team was formed in 2009 to track down and catch people who tamper with their number plates.
Police did not issue fines to drivers who seemed to have no ill intentions and only warned them not to repeat the offence.
Col Al Mazroui said that some drivers were using new ways to get out of paying radar fines.
Some of the drivers from outside the country, he said, painted their number plates with the same oily substance that is used to protect the vehicle’s body from scratches when travelling in sandy areas and by doing so conceal part of the number plate when the sand sticks to it. Some others some placed their luggage in a way that obscured the back number plate – partially or completely.
Other methods used by drivers included breaking or denting part of the plate, tampering with the front plate, placing a screwdriver in a manner that makes it difficult to recognise the vehicle’s number and changing the area code.
There were 171 vehicles impounded by police during the first seven months of this year, for tampering with their number plates to evade traffic fines that they had previously incurred. A total of 573 vehicles were impounded for the same offence from the beginning of 2013 until the end of July this year.
Col Al Mazroui said since the beginning of this year, they have also corrected 788 instances where fines were issued to wrong vehicles because of the offender’s tampering with his number plate, and the fines were issued to the offender. Last year 4,460 corrections were made during the entire year.
He added that there are 150 cars have been added to the wanted list in the first seven months of this year.
Over the years Dubai Traffic Department had referred 10 cases to the Public Prosecution on criminal charges, for drivers who intentionally used fake or forged licence plates to evade fines.
