SHAH ALAM: The sale of cloned vehicles is believed to be orchestrated by well-organised syndicates as the vehicles brought into the country have a certificate of entitlement (COE) that will expire in three to seven days before being disposed of in that neighbouring country.
Road Transport Department (RTD) senior director (Enforcement) Datuk Lokman Jamaan said that based on the investigation, the syndicates are believed to be smuggling vehicles from Singapore using cars with COE about to expire, hiding them in the country before being sold cheaper than the market price which is S$3,000 to S$5,000 to buyers via various social media platforms.
Lokman said among the most offered models are BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, Honda and Toyota and the syndicates target individuals aged 25 to 40.
"Most of the victims were deceived by the offer of a cheap price and they were also promised to be given road tax and car ownership documents but RTD never issued them," he said at a press conference at Selangor RTD today.
Lokman said RTD was still active in tracking the network of syndicates selling cloned vehicles using its Road Charge Vehicle Entry Permit (RCVEP) system at the country's entry point in Johor to track foreign vehicles brought here.
"The system will keep a record of the vehicle being in the country for a period of more than two months. When the vehicle is in the country for a long period of time, we suspect that the vehicle is a cloned car and we will conduct an operation to detect it," he said.
In Selangor, about 329 cases of cloned vehicles were recorded since 2011 via the department's special operations, and RTD also implemented the disposal of cloned vehicles, with 234 vehicles in 2019 and 46 vehicles in 2022 being auctioned this year, he said. – BERNAMA