The Tema Police Command has arrested 11 people on suspicion of engaging in the illegal issuance of licences and vehicle documents to clients of the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA).
The suspects, according to the Regional Operations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Karim Atuluk, would be screened before any prosecution will be initiated.
He, however, promised that the exercise would be sustained until the racketeers of licences and other car documents were weaned-off DVLA activities.
“Those found to have been transacting genuine business on the premises would be released, while those found to have engaged in illegal activities would be processed for court,” he told the Daily Graphic after the exercise.
Challenges posed by goro boys
Issues of fake documents covering stolen vehicles, he said, were on the increase as a result of the activities of the middlemen, popularly referred to as “goro boys”.
With incidents of carjacking and heinous crimes on the increase in the Tema metropolis, Mr Karim said it was becoming difficult to apprehend perpetrators as a result of fake documents on vehicles.
The Tema Regional Manager of the DVLA, Mr Thomas Nintori, for his part, indicated that the authority had on many occasions been confronted with fake documents issued to vehicle owners by the goro boys.
He was worried that in spite of the open display of fees and charges, as well as where to go to be able to access services rendered by the DVLA, some members of the public continued to fall prey to the activities of such unscrupulous persons.
“The queue system introduced was to make processes orderly, but clients would still want to go through the back door, even in the face of the digital processes of our services lately,” Mr Nintori emphasised.
He said the authority had also realised that some of its employees were conniving with the goro boys, so it had instituted punitive measures to ensure the bad ones in the system were sacked.
“We will crack the whip on our own when the need be. But our greatest concern is public co-operation. The public must co-operate with us to reduce incidence of fraud and extortion,” Mr Nintori stressed.
Source: Graphic Online