Police in Indonesia have spotted an unusual traffic violation trend lately, one involving youths replacing the legal Indonesian license plates on their motorcycles with Thai ones, which are obviously illegally out of place here.
Among the first reported cases took place in Central Java’s West Banyumas regency, where local police fined a couple of teenagers who not only sported a Thai license plate, but also were not driving with the appropriate safety gear.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaBTkeCgV1K/?taken-by=polres_banyumas
The police in Karawang, West Java, also caught a Thai license plate offender that same day. The offender, in this case, told the police that she bought the license plate because she wanted a “variety” of license plates for aesthetic purposes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaDdNEUB5Y9/?taken-by=satlantas_karawang
Yesterday, a Thai license plate on a motorcycle was found in Belitung island east of Sumatra.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaGFBuSnID8/?taken-by=satlantas_belitung
The police have not been able to determine who started this trend and if the Thai license plates were imported from Thailand or produced locally. Many e-commerce websites in Indonesia currently still sell Thai license plates from as low as IDR50,000 (US$3.70).
Indonesia’s traffic laws dictate that those caught using license plates not issued by the National Police may be punished with up to two-months in prison or a fine of IDR500,000 (US$37).
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