KOR
▲ Crackdown on illegal unregistered vehicles known as 'daepocha' (File Photo)
The Korean National Police Agency's National Office of Investigation announced that it has caught 1,928 illegal vehicles, commonly known as 'daepocha' (vehicles operated by someone other than the registered owner), and referred 380 related individuals to prosecutors following a five-month intensive investigation from February to June of this year.
Because daepocha are operated without ownership transfer registration, the actual driver and the registered owner differ. This leads to failures in fulfilling legal obligations such as regular inspections, insurance coverage, and the payment of fines, and because they are difficult to track, they are frequently abused in various crimes.
Police uncovered 12 individuals (involving 558 vehicles) linked to defunct corporate entities who distributed daepocha by selling vehicles registered under closed corporate names without transfer registration or by utilizing car dealership inventory vehicles.
Additionally, authorities arrested 87 individuals (involving 1,107 vehicles) for illegal distribution activities, such as operating a used car dealership without government registration, or registered dealers arranging sales while falsifying transaction documents.
Furthermore, 281 individuals (involving 263 vehicles) were caught for illegal driving practices, such as operating so-called ghost vehicles with cancelled license plates, driving without transferring vehicle ownership, or violating municipal operation suspension orders.
By age group, suspects in their 60s or older were the most numerous at 95.
They were followed by 78 people in their 50s and 71 in their 30s.
By occupation, self-employed individuals were the most common at 118, followed by the unemployed at 56 and office workers at 38.
Police explained that through this investigation, they identified major criminal methods, including distributing vehicles written off as total losses in accidents, fraudulently obtaining loans under the guise of sales, and selling vehicles owned by defunct corporations to debt collectors without transferring ownership.
As a representative case, the Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency arrested 41 members of a ring that distributed 676 total-loss vehicles—purchased cheaply from tow truck drivers and others—as daepocha, and defrauded about 1.1 billion won in used car collateral loans.
Through this intensive crackdown, police collected approximately 30 million won in overdue fines from around 600 vehicles.
Going forward, police plan to strengthen intelligence gathering on vulnerabilities in daepocha distribution, such as monitoring online vehicle transaction advertisements, and maintain a year-round regular crackdown system centered around the traffic crime investigation teams of provincial police agencies nationwide.
Hong Seok-ki, head of the National Office of Investigation, stated, "The distribution of daepocha, which can be abused as a means for various crimes, is a clear act of undermining public order," adding, "We will respond firmly by maintaining a year-round crackdown system."
(File Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
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