The head of the State Traffic Inspectorate explained how to punish violators without state registration marks

The head of the traffic police sent explanations to regional departments on how to punish drivers who drive vehicles without license plates. If the vehicle is registered, the sanction will not exceed 800 rubles; in other cases, the driver may lose his license. The rules in this regard have not changed, but after the recent decision of the Supreme Court, traffic police inspectors began to fine even those citizens who had just purchased a car and, by law, have the right to use it without state registration marks for ten days. Glavk limited this practice, a number of independent experts believe that it was in vain.

A number of Telegram channels on Tuesday published a letter from the head of the State Traffic Inspectorate, Mikhail Chernikov, to the regional State Traffic Safety Inspectorate, in which the issues of qualification of offenses under Art. 12.1 and 12.2 of the Administrative Code. A Kommersant source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed the authenticity of the document. The document that was made public provoked a wave of media reports with headlines like “The traffic police allowed driving without license plates” and “The traffic police allowed unregistered cars to drive,” although the legislation did not change.

Art. 12.1 establishes the punishment for driving an unregistered car (a fine of 500–800 rubles or deprivation of rights in case of repetition), and Art. 12.2 – for driving without license plates (fine 5 thousand rubles or deprivation of rights). By law, the car owner is required to register the vehicle within ten days after concluding a sales contract (SPA), during which time he can drive it without state registration marks. After this, the car owner can only be punished under Art. 12.1 – art. 12.2 cannot be applied for driving without license plates, writes Mikhail Chernikov.

The clarification was required based on the results of “an analysis of law enforcement activities,” the letter said. At the end of 2023, the Supreme Court (SC) considered the complaint of Pavel Bulavtsev from Omsk, whom the traffic police had previously fined for driving without license plates under Art. 12.2 Code of Administrative Offences. When appealing, the driver indicated that he bought the car eight days before the inspectors stopped him, which was confirmed by the DCP. The traffic police provided data that Mr. Bulavtsev used the car six months before the conclusion of the contract and was even punished for traffic violations.

How this happened is not explained in the court decision. Vice-President of the National Automobile Union Anton Shaparin explained to Kommersant that a number of drivers carry completed DCT forms with them (legislation allows the document to be drawn up in simple written form), updating the dates in them so that, de jure, the car is constantly in use within a ten-day period between change of ownership and registration. This allows you not to apply for compulsory motor liability insurance, not receive fines from cameras and not pay transport tax, explains Mr. Shaparin. There is no evidence of the use of this scheme by Pavel Bulavtsev; the Supreme Court only confirmed the legality of the sanction applied against him. After the publication of the court ruling, inspectors in the regions decided that Art. 12.2, even if the ten-day period has not expired, a source familiar with the situation explained to Kommersant. This is incorrect, he continues, and a clarification had to be issued.

The traffic police need to come up with a legal mechanism that allows them to punish violators who hide behind “fresh” police regulations, experts interviewed by Kommersant believe. There are no reliable statistics describing the scale of this phenomenon. According to the data of the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court, under Part 1.1 of Art. 12.1 (repeated driving in a car that is not registered) in the first half of 2023, 8.7 thousand cases were received by the courts – 7% more than in 2022, and 25% more than in 2021. We can talk about several million cars simultaneously on the roads (the total fleet of registered cars, let us remind you, is 61 million cars), says Anton Shaparin. The expert speaks of the need to “close the loophole,” but the letter that has become public gives reason to think that without license plates you can now drive virtually with impunity. There is a risk that there will now be more cars without license plates on the roads, agrees retired traffic police captain and founder of the public project “Overheard at the Traffic Police” Valentin Ilyinov, although the instruction formally received by the regions is not a normative act.

Ivan Buranov