It’s a difficulty that not often if ever crosses the minds of most drivers in New York Metropolis or elsewhere: the fraudulent sale of short-term license plate tags — “temp tags” — and the following unlawful use of them in hit-and-run accidents, shootings and robberies.
In an in depth investigation revealed just lately by StreetsBlog USA, a each day information website based in 2006 that addresses options “to finish automobile dependence in the USA,” readers will discover the primary a part of a sequence referred to as “Ghost Tags,” which claims to supply a glance “inside New York Metropolis’s black marketplace for short-term license plates.”
The reporting ties within the fraudulent sale of short-term plates by used automobile sellers in New Jersey and different states with drivers who skirt accountability in quite a few violations and, in some instances, deaths. One such discovering examines a hit-and-run in Queens, New York final 12 months, during which a five-year-old boy died when he was struck by a driver with a suspended license and a counterfeit New Jersey temp tag. “Temps from New Jersey are among the many commonest on the streets of New York Metropolis, as are tags from Georgia and Texas,” the report says.
StreetsBlog seems to be on the dealings of a number of so-called “automobile sellers” that market temp tags illegally for $100 to $200 every. In a single notably gorgeous instance, the report cities one F&J Auto Mall in Bridgeton, New Jersey, “though the first proprietor listed an residence in higher Manhattan as his tackle when forming the corporate, enterprise data present. F&J issued 36,000 short-term license plates in 2021—greater than some other dealership within the state, together with the used-car juggernauts Carvana and CarMax mixed.” Though potential income for F&J have been within the hundreds of thousands, the company, which was shut down by the motor autos division, was fined $500.
Though pretend temp tags can result in extra severe penalties, there’s the income concerned. In New York, for instance, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority alone loses round $11 million yearly in unbillable tolls at its bridges and tunnels as a consequence of dangerous paper tags, based on the story. “Visitors tickets, gross sales taxes, registration charges and different tolls that go unpaid due to sham paper tags doubtless deliver the full price in New York into the tens of hundreds of thousands, if not greater,” the report says. “And with toll cameras set to encircle decrease Manhattan when New York introduces congestion pricing subsequent 12 months, demand for pretend temps might solely develop, a market that unscrupulous automobile sellers could be desperate to serve as long as weak laws allow them to.”
“The system has so many loopholes you can’t actually cease it,” stated Abdul Cummings, a used automobile seller in Jersey Metropolis who watched demand for temp tags explode in the course of the pandemic. “The system permits it.”
There far more deep-dive knowledge—a few of it disturbing—to be discovered right here.
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