Tougher penalties for car thieves

NUMBERPLATE and car thieves beware – you could now spend up to six months in jail and receive hefty fines of up to $6000 under new vehicle tampering laws.
Transport Minister Peter Batchelor last week announced the new laws that clamp down on motor vehicle theft and re-birthing.
Mr Batchelor said an amendment to the Road Safety Act introduced to Parliament this week would make it an offence to forge or tamper with a plate, label or mark located on a vehicle which uniquely identifies it.
“Currently, the Act makes it an offence for documentation associated with a vehicle to be forged or fraudulently altered or used,” he said.
“This offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 penalty units or two months imprisonment. As the illegal practice of vehicle re-birthing becomes more sophisticated, we recognise the need to keep step and the introduction of this new offence helps achieve this. The maximum penalty applying to the new offence of forging or tampering with a vehicle identifier or compliance plate will be 60 penalty units or 6 months imprisonment.”
The new law relates specifically to changing or removing numberplates and altering the Vehicle Identification Number to ‘rebirth’ a vehicle that may be stolen.
“Adding strength to the forgery provisions in the Road Safety Act is a logical step which will allow us to further clamp down on vehicle theft,” Mr Batchelor said.
“The proposed change to the Act further raises the importance of buyers verifying vehicle identifiers before they purchase.”