Police driving out car plate racket

By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-24 07:50

Local traffic authorities have shut down a vehicle registration office amid allegations that scalpers were collaborating with insiders and trading car license plate combinations on the black market.

The Jingshun vehicle inspection center in northeast Beijing's Shunyi district was ordered to close on Monday after traffic police said car license plate scalping was rampant there.

New car owners were allegedly paying twice the official cost of a vehicle license plate in order to get plates with supposed auspicious combinations.

It was the third time the center has been involved in such allegations in the past six years.

Police have not yet indicated whether alleged scalpers or corrupt officials will end up facing charges. But officers vowed on Tuesday to tackle the widespread black market trade in desirable license plates "with severity".

The development came less than a week after an influential local newspaper ran an undercover story about the illegal trading of license plate combinations at several registration centers citywide, including the Jingshun center.

Scalpers reportedly told drivers they could get them the combinations they wanted for a commission as high as 1,000 yuan, based on "how good the combination is".

License plate numbers are supposed to be issued for a flat fee and drivers are not meant to be able to pick the numbers they want.

In the recent article, scalpers said they had sources in the registration office and could make use of computer flaws in the combination selection system to grab good combinations before the public gets to see them.

Officials with the city's traffic management authorities, seemingly under pressure to deal with the illegal practice, told METRO the closure of the allegedly corrupt registration office was just the start of the crackdown.

"Senior officials thought they must do something to cope with the mounting pressure," a traffic police officer, who declined to be named, told METRO. "People all know that scalping exists at the registration offices."

Zhang Guoqing, director of the Jingshun center, refused to respond to questions on Tuesday and hung up the phone each time METRO called. An officer at the center, who declined to be named, said it had been closed for two days.

"I don't know whether we will still get paid if the center stops operation," the officer said.

Car owners have told METRO that the black market for car plate combinations has been active for years.

Driver Jiang Shanshan said earlier that she noticed scalpers selling high-priced combinations when she visited the offices.

Traffic police urged car owners on Tuesday to follow the rules when selecting their car plate numbers, either online or at the registration offices.

"Don't get sidetracked by scalpers," police warned in a statement.

Local media reported last week that the computer-based selection system was flawed and allowed people to "book" car plate combinations using the fake ID or serial number of any unregistered vehicle.

The registration office declined to speak about the efficiency of the system but did say it would "look into the cases".