By Gan Ling Kai

WHEN Mr Bobby Lim was assigned his system-generated licence plate for his white Toyota Alphard, he thought it was his lucky day.

To him, the plate number 1682 was considered lucky because the first three digits sound like 'prosper all the way' in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Ironically, Mr Lim, 44, who runs a limousine service, ended up more than $300 poorer.

Someone was caught using a fake plate with his licence number on a stolen car, and he now has to spend that sum to get a new licence number.

His case is not unique.

Last month, The New Paper reported how a car valet allegedly made fake licence plates for his car because he could not keep up with his car loan payments.

As a result, the real owner, whose car was of a similar make and model, received summonses for parking offences he didn't commit.

Checks with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) showed that six summonses were issued for illegal car plate duplication last year.

There were 11 such summonses in 2008 and four in 2007.

In Mr Lim's case, he discovered his car plate number had been duplicated when the police contacted him recently.

He was told that it had been spotted on a stolen vehicle.

When he arrived at the Jurong Police Division to help with the investigations, he saw that the culprit had put his plate numbers on a car that was of the same model and colour as his.

When contacted by The New Paper on Sunday, Deputy Superintendent of Police Stanley Norbert confirmed that a 40-year-old man was charged in court in January for being in possession of a stolen vehicle.

Mr Lim decided to change his licence plate number as he's worried that the stolen vehicle had been used for illegal activities.

Mr Lim said: "Who knows what the culprit had done using that stolen vehicle?"

Typically, when owners want to replace their existing vehicle registration numbers, they may do so by bidding for a new number.

The minimum bid is $1,000, and they also have to pay a fee and GST which come up to $321.

In Mr Lim's case, LTA made an exception by allocating a new system-generated number to his vehicle.

But he still needs to pay $321 to replace his existing number.