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

The Excessive Court docket delivered a landmark ruling yesterday to find the highway transport division (JPJ) negligent in not sustaining correct automobile registration information, Free Malaysia Today reported.

This case was introduced by Dr Hema Thiyagu, who purchased the automobile, a 2013 Toyota Vellfire, not understanding it was a cloned automobile. In Might final 12 months, Hema sued the Penang JPJ director, the JPJ director-general and the federal authorities, after the division seized the automobile 10 months after she bought it. The JPJ stated 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 automobile, and her lawyer Okay. Simon Murali submitted that the JPJ was negligent in permitting the automobile’s chassis and engine numbers to be registered to a distinct automobile.

Additional submission by Murali claimed that, primarily based 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 automobile was then illegally registered and had modified palms a number of occasions earlier than it was bought by his shopper, who didn’t know its standing.

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

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

Justice Anand Ponnudurai stated the JPJ director-general has a duty to keep up an correct automobile register, particularly of automobiles flagged as cloned, and stated the division ought to have seized the automobile upon discovering it was cloned. The decide stated that Hema was unaware she had purchased a cloned automobile 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 automobile, 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 stated.

The decide 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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