Kheng calls for fake plate busts
Thu, 1 October 2015 ppp
Vong Sokheng
Minister
of Interior Sar Kheng has called on police to tighten the noose on both
the unauthorised use of official police licence plates among their own
ranks, and on the use of fake police plates by the public at large.
It
is illegal to use official police plates on personal vehicles, as it is
to use the fake plates, which are widely available for less than $10,
and often used in the commission of crimes by perpetrators hoping to
avoid scrutiny.
“There
is a small amount of police officials who have been using vehicles
carrying police number plates in violation of the traffic law and other
laws, and [have been] allowing non-police to use the numbers or using
vehicles with police number plates to serve private interests, which
affects the dignity, honour, and prestige of the National Police,” Kheng
wrote in a September 25 letter, which was obtained yesterday.
Kheng
went on to acknowledge the use of fake plates by criminals, and also
reminded officials that police plates were no excuse for not paying
taxes on their vehicles. The letter called for street-side checkpoints,
as well as checks at police stations themselves.
“[The
police] must detain vehicles, and the owners or drivers of any vehicle,
carrying police number plates without the proper license or fake
licence [places],” the letter adds.
Both crimes have been part of Cambodia’s Criminal Code since at least 2011, and are punishable by jail time and fines.
However,
Run Rath Veasna, director of the public order department at the
Ministry of Interior, said yesterday that police were not yet enacting
Kheng’s five-day-old instructions because time was needed to disseminate
them.
“We
haven’t taken measures to monitor the streets yet; we’re giving a
deadline of 90 days to publicly announce the instruction,” Veasna said.
Ny
Chakrya, head of the human rights section of the NGO Adhoc, said that
while he was not investigating the use of fake plates himself, their use
in criminal activity was commonplace, and that the improper use of
official plates to evade taxes and smuggle illicit goods was often
“connected to the powerful and the rich”.
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