A cloned minibus taxi caught the eyes of the police between Klippoortjie and Rondebult on May 10 when officers noted that it was overloaded.
According to EMPD spokesperson Kobeli Mokheseng, members of the EMPD Overload Control Unit were carrying out their routine crime-prevention operation on Heidelberg Road when they spotted the overloaded taxi.
Officers pulled it over and found that it was carrying 20 passengers instead of its authorised maximum carrying capacity of 15 persons. It was en route from Zonkizizwe to Germiston.
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While officers were in the process of issuing the driver a fine, he ran away and disappeared into thin air, leaving the passengers stranded on the road.
The driver’s strange behaviour aroused the police officers’ suspicions, which prompted them to carry out more checks on the state of the vehicle. Upon closer inspections, it was found that something was not right with the licence disc and number plates.
“The vehicle bears cloned registration plates, which belong to another taxi operating in the Pretoria area. It has a fake licence disc with a forged vehicle identification number (VIN) and engine number.
“Further checks revealed that the seized vehicle was initially reported stolen before it was recovered and then sold to a KwaZulu-Natal-based owner at an auction,” explained Mokheseng.
“We are hunting the driver and trying to get hold of the owner of the impounded Toyota Quantum, who is believed to be in KwaZulu-Natal,” said Mokheseng.
The confiscated minibus taxi was taken to Van Ryn Deep (police yard) for safekeeping.
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