Hundreds of New Zealand motorists who claimed their vehicles were hearses so they could pay reduced registration fees face prosecution.
The scam came to light last month when a woman claimed on talk-back radio that she and her friends registered their vehicles as hearses because they carried frozen chickens home from the supermarket.
Land Transport New Zealand, which polices vehicle registration, was not amused.
It carried out a nationwide enquiry, detected 937 possible culprits, and has written to them saying they must register correctly or face prosecution.
Listing a car as hearse means you only pay $36 instead of the average $113 registration fee.
“Carrying groceries or dead animals in your car does not make it a hearse,” sombre Land Transport spokesperson Andy Knackstedt said.
In the context of the three million vehicles registered in New Zealand, the fake hearse figure was “not huge”, Knackstedt said, but people abusing the system were ripping off fellow motorists. — AFP