Excessive Courtroom guidelines JPJ negligent in cloned Toyota Vellfire case, awards proprietor RM139k in damages

The Excessive Courtroom delivered a landmark ruling yesterday find the street transport division (JPJ) negligent in not sustaining correct car registration data, Free Malaysia Today reported.

This case was introduced by Dr Hema Thiyagu, who purchased the car, a 2013 Toyota Vellfire, not realizing it was a cloned car. In Might final 12 months, Hema sued the Penang JPJ director, the JPJ director-general and the federal authorities, after the division seized the car 10 months after she bought it. The JPJ mentioned its chassis and engine numbers had been tampered with.

Hema claimed in her swimsuit filed that the JPJ failed to clarify how the tampering was not detected when she registered the car, and her lawyer Ok. Simon Murali submitted that the JPJ was negligent in permitting the car’s chassis and engine numbers to be registered to a special car.

Additional submission by Murali claimed that, based mostly on testimony from witnesses from the JPJ, there was no proof that the earlier proprietor of the Vellfire was current in the course of the switch of possession in Ipoh, Perak, regardless of this being a authorized requirement, the report wrote.

The stolen car was then illegally registered and had modified fingers a number of instances earlier than it was bought by his shopper, who didn’t know its standing.

The JPJ mentioned in its defence that Hema’s car was cloned and had been reported stolen in Labu, Negeri Sembilan in 2019, whereas its chassis and engine numbers had been from one other car in Johor. This Johor-registered car had been owned by an insurer after an accident in 2018, and it was auctioned the next 12 months.

A subsequent purchaser, when attempting to alter the possession to his title, discovered the car was “already registered”, the JPJ mentioned in its defence assertion, in accordance with the report. The division mentioned it was not obliged to examine the autos earlier than registering them as these duties lay with Puspakom, saying that its registration course of was based mostly solely on required paperwork and therfore was not legally obliged to inform Hema why her car was seized.

Justice Anand Ponnudurai mentioned the JPJ director-general has a accountability to take care of an correct car register, particularly of vehicles flagged as cloned, and mentioned the division ought to have seized the car upon discovering it was cloned. The choose mentioned that Hema was unaware she had purchased a cloned car and since there have been a number of earlier house owners, there was no suspicion in her case.

“JPJ had proof as early as December 6, 2019, eight months earlier than Hema purchased the car, suggesting that the Vellfire could also be cloned, however did nothing,” and because of this, the Penang JPJ director and the JPJ director-general had breached their statutory duties, Anand mentioned.

The choose awarded Hema RM139,000 in damages and RM10,000 in prices, that are to be paid by the federal authorities, which was named because the third defendant. On this case, senior federal counsel Muhammad Sinti represented JPJ and the federal authorities.

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