“Ghost cars” with illegitimate license plates continue to be an issue in New York. However, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has just made a big move in the fight against fake plates in New York, and across the east coast. The government office has charged 11 people in connection with a major operation that allegedly created at least 100,000 fake temporary plates, in several different states, over the past nine years, reports WIVB.
The organization is accused of establishing fake car dealers in Georgia and New Jersey, then using them to print out temporary plates and sell them for between $50 and $250 a pop, with the scheme dating all the way back to 2017. Dealers are only allowed to provide temp plates to customers who are buying a car from them, but since these aren’t real dealers, there’s no reason to suspect they’d follow any other laws.Â
According to Lohud, officials say the main goal of the operation was to help people bypass New York tolls, parking tickets, and other vehicle-related fees. These plates have cost the city $11.8 million in unpaid tickets, tolls, and vehicle registrations, and the E-ZPass system has lost $3.1 million in toll revenue. That’s almost $15 million in total.
It’s not just about the money
While lost ticket and toll revenue may not generate much sympathy, that’s not all these fake temp plates have been used for. They have also been connected to six homicides reported to NYPD, and at least 1,200 other reported incidents. Using a fake temporary plate, especially if the numbers on that plate are real, could throw police off the scent of a larger crime, successfully hiding a criminal’s identity in the surveillance-heavy state we’re currently living in.Â
One of the results, however, is that some drivers who are unfortunate enough to have legitimately held the license plate numbers re-used on the fake plates have found themselves on the hook for thousands of dollars in tolls or tickets. New York has introduced legislation to try and fix this problem, but exactly what will help is unclear. Texas tried banning paper temporary plates entirely, only to have fraudsters create fake metal plates instead, thanks to vinyl printers and the state’s laughably simple black and white plate design.
The 11 defendants in this case are all facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and access device fraud. That could be some serious time behind bars — up to five years for conspiracy to commit access device fraud, up to ten for access device fraud, and up to 20 years for wire fraud.
