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Fake plate

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alteregorr

Member
My buddy got some plates from the states and puts them on his car when he parks in Toronto. He just started doing it this week. Today some construction guys on the street told him a cop was checking out his car and took down his VIN.

Any idea what's coming to him?
 
alteregorr said:
My buddy got some plates from the states and puts them on his car when he parks in Toronto. He just started doing it this week. Today some construction guys on the street told him a cop was checking out his car and took down his VIN.

Any idea what's coming to him?
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Fraud charge, misrepresentation, its definitely something you could be arrested for.

tell your buddy to lube up!
 
Not sure but in my opinion he deserves some kind of ticket for trying to scam free parking. Cop was likely checking if it was stolen.
 
His vin is attached to an ON plate, but his car was not towed. Can cops access vins from their cruiser?

Fraud charge and misrepresentation sounds a bit extreme. He did not drive the vehicle with fake plates.

He was going by http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...ce_drivers_get_a_pass_on_parking_tickets.html


Maybe those guys did not know the difference between a parking maid and a cop. My buddy asked them if it was a cop or a parking maid and they said it was a cop... but they could be wrong.a
 
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Sounds like a great scam to me. Even if they check the VIN and find it's for an ON vehicle, they don't know if it was just sold to a Yank and he brought his own plates, or anything.
However, if they check the plates with the law enforcement in the US and they come up invalid, then that would be equivalent to a vehicle with missing plates on the road. A few hundred dollar fine I believe? Since the car is actually registered, insured, and road legal, I don't see what other penalty could apply.
 
@alteregorr the method mentioned in the thestar article is correct, but only for out of province/state vehicles

all a civilian has to do is call toronto police: 416-808-2222 and ask for communications; tell the op. there is a vehicle parked here, can you check if it's stolen? operator will ask for the plate #, VIN #, vehicle description then dispatch TPS to tow it

you don't need access to a cruiser to check if it's stolen/unattached plates, you can find out over the phone

ALSO, parking tickets (provincial offense notices) can also be issued to the VIN # rather than the plate; this happens a lot for vehicles parked without license plates

@fastar1, lets just say that the vehicle was sold to a yank; the original owner would have either returned the plates or have it unattached from the vehicle
 
fastar1 said:
Sounds like a great scam to me. Even if they check the VIN and find it's for an ON vehicle, they don't know if it was just sold to a Yank and he brought his own plates, or anything.
However, if they check the plates with the law enforcement in the US and they come up invalid, then that would be equivalent to a vehicle with missing plates on the road. A few hundred dollar fine I believe? Since the car is actually registered, insured, and road legal, I don't see what other penalty could apply.
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If the car is actually registered, insured, and road legal, it is $110
 
iFly55 said:
@fastar1, lets just say that the vehicle was sold to a yank; the original owner would have either returned the plates or have it unattached from the vehicle
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Precisely - the original owner removes the Ontario plates, and the new american owner slaps on his USA plates. Since he is moving back to the USA, he never intended to register the car to his name in Ontario.

It is an scenario that could actually happen.
 
Police can access US state registries from the cruiser (as well as VIN's). If the plate doesn't come back right (and especially if it doesn't come back right and the VIN comes back to a Canadian who's local so it's obvious as to what's going on) you've got HTA 12(1)(d) "use plate not authorized for vehicle", $170 fine, seized plates, towed vehicle (and all the costs associated with that). And I'm pretty sure his insurance company is gonna have something to say about that too.
 
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Fake plates on a car parked in the street? How can this even be considered a good idea? The fines will be more than a years worth of parking tickets :)
 
coyo said:
Police can access US state registries from the cruiser (as well as VIN's). If the plate doesn't come back right (and especially if it doesn't come back right and the VIN comes back to a Canadian who's local so it's obvious as to what's going on) you've got HTA 12(1)(d) "use plate not authorized for vehicle", $170 fine, seized plates, towed vehicle (and all the costs associated with that). And I'm pretty sure his insurance company is gonna have something to say about that too.
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That looks like the perfect charge, but the guy would have to be driving his car for HTA to apply.

I am starting to think it was just a meter maid. If it was serious his car would have been towed.

He learned a few lessons from his research. Make sure the tags are updated! Place a few parking meter receipts on his dash where the vin is.
 
Why would you want to waste the effort of screwing around with plates? What purpose does this serve? :confused:
 
alteregorr said:
He learned a few lessons from his research. Make sure the tags are updated! Place a few parking meter receipts on his dash where the vin is.
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So "your friend" is going to forge updated American state license stickers on top of everything else? That's called digging a deeper hole, not learning a lesson. Guess what happens when the TPE/TPS keep finding a car with American plates and a VIN window covered with expired parking receipts?

Plus you just explained the whole scam on an open forum. Criminal mastermind he is not.
 
alteregorr said:
That looks like the perfect charge, but the guy would have to be driving his car for HTA to apply.

I am starting to think it was just a meter maid. If it was serious his car would have been towed.

He learned a few lessons from his research. Make sure the tags are updated! Place a few parking meter receipts on his dash where the vin is.
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No, he doesn't have to be driving, and the tow authority and seizure of the plates exist even without the charge being laid. The section doesn't even ID a highway as an element of the offence allowing for it to be applied on private property.

HTA s.12(1)(d) said:
Violations as to number plates12. (1) Every person who,
(a) defaces or alters any number plate, evidence of validation or permit;
(b) uses or permits the use of a defaced or altered number plate, evidence of validation or permit;
(c) without the authority of the permit holder, removes a number plate from a motor vehicle or trailer;
(d) uses or permits the use of a number plate upon a vehicle other than a number plate authorized for use on that vehicle;
(e) uses or permits the use of evidence of validation upon a number plate displayed on a motor vehicle other than evidence of validation furnished by the Ministry in respect of that motor vehicle; or
(f) uses or permits the use of a number plate or evidence of validation other than in accordance with this Act and the regulations,
is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000 or to imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or to both, and in addition the person’s licence or permit may be suspended for not more than six months. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 12 (1).
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Covering the VIN still doesn't prevent the officer from discovering that the US plate shouldn't be on the vehicle, again opening the vehicle to HTA s.12(1)(d).
 
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coyo posted the applicable HTA section. To that you can add the expense of a tag for illegal parking, then tow and impound for being on the street without a valid number plate. That could easily top $300.00, even if it was picked up the same day. Then there's the potential for the original 'legal' number plates to be cancelled by MTO.

And that's assuming that they don't trump up some Criminal Code charge, like fraud, just to cost him a few tens of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees.
 
I'm getting plates from N. Korea. Pretty sure their registry is closed to Canada. Sounds kind of weird that the US gives open access to their database to every Canadian cop. I wonder what else Canadian cops can see about us citizens. What about the other way? What can us cops see about us?

Who gets the ticket exactly? The operator or the owner? Would it go on the driving record? Red light camera tickets go to the owner, but his record is not affected since they can't tell who the operator was. Is this similar?
 
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