HIS two-year-old silver Subaru Legacy car was burnt completely and written off by his insurance company.

Two months later, the 35-year-old Singaporean businessman, who wanted to be known only as Mr Ng, saw a car of the same make, model and colour being advertised for sale by a dealer on the sgCarMart website.

A bigger jolt came when he saw it had the same licence plate number.

He wondered how his car could have been restored to such a pristine condition.

But when The New Paper team probed further, we uncovered what appears to be a possible scam involving vehicle identity theft.

We posed as a potential buyer and asked the dealer for a copy of the car's registration details.

Its vehicle identification numbers, such as the engine and chassis numbers, turned out to be exactly the same as that of Mr Ng's damaged car.

These numbers are unique to every vehicle. No two vehicles that remain registered can have the same licence plate number.

All these suggest that the shiny car in the showroom had taken on the identity of Mr Ng's wrecked car.

This is known within the car industry as 'ringing'.

A former police investigator who has dealt with vehicle fraud said the car in the showroom could be a stolen vehicle or one which has been de-registered.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) began investigating the case after it was alerted by The New Paper. It seized the car from the dealer on 20 Mar.

An LTA spokesman said the engine and chassis numbers of the seized car appeared to have been tampered with.

When The New Paper visited the showroom at Turf City where the car was on display earlier this month, an employee said the car owner was an expatriate who was leaving the country.

The price quoted was $79,000, but he said it was 'negotiable'.

We were told it was a company car which was almost unused.

The road tax had been paid till September this year.

And though the car was two years old based on its date of registration - the same as Mr Ng's car - it had clocked only 24km.

'ALMOST BRAND NEW'

Said the employee: 'You will surely like this car because it is almost brand new. You can tell by the smell of the leather (in the interior).'

He pointed out that the car had a sun roof that can be tilted and that the vehicle also came with a sound system worth more than $1,000.

He repeated that the car had never been involved in an accident - when asked on three separate occasions.

'You must let me know soon if you're keen on buying the car because a number of people have asked about it,' the employee said.

After the car was seized, its listing on the sgCarMart website was updated, saying the car had been sold.

When we contacted the dealership last week, it declined to comment on the matter.

Mr Ng's insurer, NTUC Income, had written off his car as a total loss in January.

It said it does not repair such vehicles as they have sustained damage to such an extent that it is not economical to carry out any repairs.

Said the spokesman: 'When a damaged vehicle has been classified as 'total loss', we will pay the policyholder the prevailing market value of the vehicle.

'We will then sell the vehicle to a salvage dealer. This is in line with industry practice.'

The spokesman said Mr Ng's wrecked car was sold to a scrap dealer in early February.

Mr Ng had bought his brand new car in March 2006 for $106,000.

While driving alone to Genting Highlands at night on 19 Jan, he got into an accident close on the North-South Highway.

'It was very dark and I did not see the car in front of me slowing down. Before I knew it, I crashed into it,' said Mr Ng.

'As soon as I got out of the car, it caught fire. There was smoke coming out from the bonnet and it quickly spread to the whole car.'

It was burnt to a wreck before his eyes. Mr Ng, who was unhurt, called a friend to pick him up and take him home.

The next day, his workshop in Singapore towed the car to the Independent Damage Assessment Centre at Sin Ming Drive for inspection.

There, it was assessed as a total loss. NTUC Income paid Mr Ng $98,500 on 14 Feb as final settlement of his insurance claim.

He transferred the ownership of the car to NTUC Income as part of the procedure.

Mr Ng then used the insurance payout to buy a second-hand car.

BAFFLED

On 17 Mar, a friend came across the car that was advertised on the website.

The friend remembered Mr Ng's licence plate number and knew about the accident. He, too, was baffled as to how it could have been repaired to look like new.

When Mr Ng was alerted by his friend, the car lover thought it was a joke at first.

Recalled Mr Ng: 'I went to the website to take a look and was stunned. My car was so badly damaged. How could it look like the one on the website?'

When told about the apparent identity theft, he said: 'I just hope the authorities can get to the bottom of this matter.'

First-time offenders caught tampering with a vehicle's engine or chassis number can be fined $2,000 or jailed three months.

The maximum penalty for using the licence plate number of another vehicle is a fine of $5,000 and a year's jail.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Mar 31, 2008.