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41 cars seized in 5 months for tampering with number plates

Abu Dhabi Police has smart laser-fitted electronic control devices that can identify the registration plates drivers try to obscure or change.

The Abu Dhabi Police Directorate of Traffic and Patrols has seized 41 cars in the past five months for intentionally defacing and obscuring their number plates to avoid being identified by radars and speed cameras. Also, 17 other vehicles were confiscated for driving without a number plate.

Lt-Colonel Ahmed Al Zayoudi, Chief of the Major Traffic Accidents Section at the Abu Dhabi Police Traffic and Patrols Directorate, said motorists, mostly coming from other Gulf countries, deliberately make their number plates fuzzy and sometimes even smudge the number plates to avoid being identified when flashed.

Lt-Colonel Al Zayoudi also stressed that the Abu Dhabi Police has smart laser-fitted electronic control devices that can identify the registration plates drivers try to obscure or change.

“The directorate is rigorously monitoring internal and external roads to detect any road offenses by motorists who try to blot out the number plates using a chemical spray, or bend the number plates or hang them with a chain in such a manner that it becomes difficult to read them if caught on radars for any traffic violation. Such actions are deemed a flagrant violation of traffic rules and are punishable by the law,” added Lt-Colonel Al Zayoudi.

Furthermore, Lt-Colonel Al Zayoudi said that according to Article No 49 of the Federal Traffic Act No 21 and its amendments, the following offences can land you in jail and a fine not less than Dh20,000:

>Creating and duplicating a number plate or using a fake licence plate.

>Defacing and altering the information on the number plates

>Using or allowing others to use a car with a number plate he knows it is distorted or changed.

>Exchanging a number plate from one car to another without the consent of the Licensing Authority.

news@khaleejtimes.com