Tens of thousands of fake license plates, millions of dollars in fines and fees dodged, nearly a decade undetected, and now, eleven arrests and counting. These are the details of what federal prosecutors are calling a fake temporary license plate operation. Members of the operation are being accused of creating fraudulent auto dealerships in New Jersey and Georgia and using them to generate and sell more than 100,000 fake temporary license plates since 2017. The defendants allegedly sold the tags for anywhere between $50 and $250 each. The tags were then used by drivers to avoid paying for registration fees, road tolls, parking tickets, and beyond. Don’t they know you can just tell Apple Maps to avoid tolls?
Though the bulk of the defendants come from New York, this case spans multiple states up and down the East Coast. Authorities figure the entire operation led to roughly $15 million in unpaid violations. Each defendant faces charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit access device fraud and access device fraud. A single wire fraud charge could come with a sentence of twenty years, while access device- counts carry maximum penalties ranging from five to ten years.
The scope of the charges goes beyond unpaid tickets
While people were using these fake tags to avoid paying fines and fees, investigators also found evidence of the fraudulent plates being tied to thousands of police reports. Apparently, these fake tags were linked to at least 1,200 incidents within the jurisdiction of the New York Police Department alone, including six homicide investigations. With arrests happening across five different states, it’s possible the number of incidents could be even higher outside of New York.
The case comes as part of growing scrutiny over fraudulent plates in the state. There, drivers are reportedly getting fined for unpaid tolls linked to plates they surrendered to the DMV. As a result, the New York State Legislature plans to tighten up on temporary tag registrations and crack down harder on counterfeit tags. Texas has faced similar problems (and has made similar plans), but it’s not working as intended.
