JOHOR BARU: The Road Transport Department will not protect staff found collaborating with syndicates, including the one involved in cloned vehicles.

JPJ director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad said those involved in cheating the public would have to face the music.

“So far, investigations carried out by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on cloned cars did not point to anyone from the department but to outside syndicates.

“Nevertheless, we have been working with MACC on this for the past six months and they are free to probe anyone,” he said after attending the department’s state-level JPJ Day here yesterday.

Ismail said out of the 167 cloned cars that had been identified, only eight people had voluntarily handed over their cars.

“They include BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Odyssey,” he said, adding that those who had yet to surrender their vehicles would face action under the MACC Act and the Road Transport Act.

Asked about the syndicates, Ismail said they were local syndicates which forged documents such as road tax and car grants belonging to vehicles mainly from Singapore.

Asked how people would know if they had bought cloned vehicles, Ismail said people should be suspicious when they purchase a luxury car for between RM20,000 and RM30,000.

“With forged chassis and engine numbers, people would also not be able to renew their road tax,” Ismail added.

The MACC and JPJ recently busted a syndicate that was luring the public to buy cloned luxury vehicles online for three times lower than the market value and seized 153 cars, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Mini Cooper.

On road accidents, Ismail said an average of 18 people died per day on the roads nationwide last year, which amounted to 6,674 deaths.

However, he added that the numbers had decreased from 6,915 deaths in 2013 and 6,917 deaths in 2012.

Resource : New Straits Times