KOTA KINABALU: Motorists who are driving cloned vehicles are urged to come forward and hand over their vehicles to either the Road Transport Department (RTD) or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to avoid facing more severe penalty.
The call came from RTD director-general Datuk Ismail Ahmad yesterday, who said any individual caught with a cloned vehicle could be charged under the MACC Act 2009 and the Road Transport Act 1987.
As of yesterday, Ismail said five people had come forward voluntarily to surrender their cloned vehicles to the authority for further action.
“Those who came forward are owners of a BMW car, a Mercedes car, a Lexus car and two Honda Odyssey cars,” he said at the excellence service award ceremony at the RTD headquarters at Jalan Bundusan, Penampang yesterday.
Also present were RTD deputy director (management) Datuk Arifin Che Mat and Sabah RTD director Mohd Shuhaili Mohd Taufek.
According to Ismail, vehicle owners with cloned cars would face several difficulties especially when it comes to renewing their vehicle road tax as the information and particulars are not available in the RTD system.
Hence, to prevent from such problems, Ismail urged the owners to come forward and hand over their vehicles to RTD or MACC.
“Since the case came to light, we have seized 153 cloned vehicles in Terengganu and 14 in Negeri Sembilan.
“We also believe that the there are more than one syndicate involved in vehicle-cloning,” he said, adding that investigation showed that most of the cloned vehicles seized were registered in Singapore.
“We do not have the actual figures, but most of the seized cloned cars are registered in Singapore where the vehicles have been disposed as they are not fit to be on the road in their country,” he said.
“The syndicate(s) will then bring these cars into Malaysia illegally and register them under fake serial numbers and insurance before selling it to the public at low prices,” he said.