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SINGAPORE \u2013 The fatal Tampines crash on Oct 29 involved a blue Audi that ploughed through the road divider and slammed into a motorcycle and another car along Tampines Avenue 12, killing the motorcyclist and his pregnant wife<\/span><\/a> who was riding pillion.<\/p>\n Although the Audi driver and his passenger fled the scene, they were arrested the next day.<\/p>\n The driver, Muhammad Zulfiqar Abdul Aziz, 30, was handed nine charges<\/span><\/a> on Oct 31, including one for using a deregistered vehicle.<\/p>\n There has been an increasing number of reported cases of deregistered vehicles being used on roads here.<\/p>\n More than 240 cases of such vehicles were investigated in 2025 for their involvement in criminal activities and hit-and-run accidents.<\/p>\n Deregistered vehicles are motor vehicles that have had their official registration cancelled, and no longer have valid road tax, insurance or a certificate of entitlement (COE).<\/p>\n These include both cars and motorcycles.<\/p>\n Typically, owners deregister their vehicles close to the end of the 10-year period of their COEs.<\/p>\n Deregistration entails an administrative process that includes clearing financial obligations and submitting proof of disposal to the Land Transport Authority (LTA).<\/p>\n The vehicle is supposed to be either scrapped at an LTA-appointed scrapyard, exported, or stored temporarily at an LTA-appointed Export Processing Zone pending export.<\/p>\n Alternatively, owners can engage a motor dealer to help them dispose of the vehicle.<\/p>\n Once deregistered, the vehicles are illegal to use.<\/p>\n The authorities also say these vehicles pose serious road safety risks as they do not have valid insurance and are not roadworthy.<\/p>\n LTA had said it could not disclose how deregistered vehicles find their way back onto Singapore\u2019s roads, citing confidentiality of investigations.<\/p>\n However, past court cases provide some idea.<\/p>\n In 2021, a man was\u00a0jailed for selling and renting deregistered cars<\/span><\/a>\u00a0which were used to commit crime. The scheme involved buying cars with COEs close to expiry, and grinding off their chassis and engine numbers.<\/p>\n The licence plates of these cars were replaced with clones of existing registered cars of similar colour, make and model.<\/p>\n Their in-vehicle units were also replaced with those of other registered vehicles.<\/p>\n Documents that made the vehicles appear to have been exported or about to be exported were submitted to the authorities.<\/p>\n The modified cars were touted as untraceable, and were sold and rented on a no-questions-asked basis.<\/p>\n No checks were conducted on whether the buyers were even legally allowed to drive.<\/p>\n Deregistered cars sold and rented by the man were\u00a0used in at least six other criminal cases<\/span><\/a>, including those involved in road traffic violations and\u00a0in\u00a0a case of unlicensed moneylending-related harassment.<\/p>\n There have also been instances of rogue exporters failing to properly dispose of or export deregistered vehicles.<\/p>\n Many of them were involved in hit-and-run accidents and criminal activities, including drug trafficking.<\/p>\n In 2024, a deregistered car was found\u00a0abandoned in the middle of the PIE<\/span><\/a>\u00a0after it collided with four other vehicles.<\/p>\n There were 40 cases of deregistered vehicles being used on roads in 2022, and 39 in 2023. The figure jumped to 75 in 2024 and 245 in 2025.<\/p>\n In the first five months of 2026, LTA investigated 122 cases.<\/p>\n These cases included a dramatic car chase in Geylang<\/span><\/a> in January that led to the arrest of a teen driving a deregistered car while under the influence of drugs.<\/p>\n In the following month, the police caught two 16-year-old girls riding a deregistered motorcycle<\/span><\/a> on the ECP.<\/p>\n It is difficult to identify deregistered cars just by looking at them, even when they go through gantries or pass through the land checkpoints.<\/p>\n The authorities have been clamping down on deregistered vehicles in recent years, running targeted operations and enforcement checks.<\/p>\n Following an islandwide crackdown in September, the authorities found 91 deregistered vehicles<\/span><\/a> that they then impounded.<\/p>\n In addition, new laws have been introduced to tighten the deregistration process and to impose heavier penalties for non-compliance.<\/p>\n In February, the Land Transport and Related Matters Bill was passed, raising the maximum penalties<\/span><\/a> for keeping or using unregistered or deregistered vehicles.<\/p>\n Previously, those caught keeping or using a deregistered vehicle could be fined up to $2,000 and jailed for up to three months for a first offence, while repeat offenders could be fined up to $5,000 and jailed for up to six months.<\/p>\n The punishment was increased to up to two years\u2019 jail and a $20,000 fine for first-time offenders, and double that for repeat offenders.<\/p>\n In October, the Land Transport and Related Matters (No. 2) Bill<\/span><\/a> was passed.<\/p>\n This shifts responsibility for deregistered vehicles from their owners to authorised exporters via the new Authorised Exporter Scheme<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n Under the scheme, deregistered vehicles must be exported through LTA-authorised exporters.<\/p>\n It also introduced a new offence for people who sell or supply deregistered vehicles knowing, or without considering whether, the vehicles will be kept or used on Singapore roads.<\/p>\n The penalties mirror those for keeping or using a deregistered vehicle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 The fatal Tampines crash on Oct 29 involved a blue Audi that ploughed through the road divider and slammed into a motorcycle and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What are deregistered vehicles?<\/h2>\n
How are these vehicles on Singapore\u2019s roads?<\/h2>\n
Q: What sort of activities have deregistered vehicles been used for?<\/h2>\n
Q: How are the authorities dealing with the problem?<\/h2>\n
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