Vehicle Code § 4463 CVC – Vehicle Registration Fraud – California Law

Vehicle Code 4463 CVC prohibits fraud or forgery as to vehicle registration certificates, tags or stickers, license plates, or smog test certificates. This offense is a wobbler, meaning it can be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony. Sentencing is up to 3 years in jail or prison.

Citations sometimes describe this section as

• 4463 VC or
• 4463 CVC.

Note that Vehicle Code 4000a1 VC requires drivers in California to have and display valid vehicle registration.

Specifically, the law prohibits all of the following:

1. Altering, forging, counterfeiting or falsifying vehicle registration materials;
2. Displaying or possessing blank, canceled, revoked, forged or counterfeit vehicle registration materials with fraudulent intent; and
3. Passing or attempting to pass as true and genuine any false, altered or counterfeit vehicle registration materials.

Examples

Here are some examples of behavior that could violate California’s car registration fraud law:

• Creating forged registration certificates and selling them on the black market;
• Stealing a registration sticker from another car and displaying it on your own to avoid having to pay the hefty fees for vehicle registration renewal; and
• Creating fake “smog test” certificates for submission to the DMV.

To help you better understand the law, our California criminal defense attorneys will address the following:

• 1. What is vehicle registration fraud?
• 2. Penalties
• 3. Defenses
• 4. Related Offenses
• Additional Resources

If, after reading this article, you would like more information, we invite you to contact us at Shouse Law Group.

1. What is vehicle registration fraud?

Falsifying, forging or counterfeiting vehicle registration certificates, license plates or registration stickers violates California’s fraud laws. “Fraud” is a deliberate deception in order to secure an unfair or unlawful gain.

1. Altering, forging, counterfeiting or falsifying a vehicle registration card, license plate, registration sticker or smog certificate, with intent to defraud; or
2. Displaying, causing or permitting to be displayed, or possessing a blank, incomplete, canceled, suspended, revoked, altered, forged, counterfeit, or false vehicle registration card, license plate, registration sticker or smog certificate, with fraudulent intent; or
3. Publishing, passing or attempting to pass as true and genuine a false, altered, forged or counterfeit vehicle registration card, license plate, registration sticker or smog certificate, with intent to defraud.¹

Let’s take a better look at the various forms of car registration fraud:

Vehicle registration fraud is one of a large number of California fraud crimes.

Altering, Forging, Counterfeiting or Falsifying Vehicle Registration Materials

One way to violate VC 4463 is to actually alter or forge vehicle registration materials. This is a variation on the California crime of forgery. This is a common crime among people who knowingly drive stolen cars.

In addition to forging or counterfeiting California registration materials, you can violate this section of the vehicle registration fraud statute by:

• Altering, forging, counterfeiting or falsifying comparable registration materials from jurisdictions other than California; or
• Altering, forging, counterfeiting or falsifying registration materials with the intent to represent them as issued by the California DMV.²

Example: Kristi moves to California from Nevada. Before registering her new Mercedes in California, she alters her Nevada registration documents to make it appear as if the car is actually a decade old. She does this to avoid paying the higher license fees on a more expensive car. Kristi is guilty of vehicle registration fraud for altering a registration document from another jurisdiction.

Intend to defraud is a key element in registration fraud crimes.

Displaying Fraudulent Registration Materials

You can also be convicted of vehicle registration fraud even if you do not create the forged or fraudulent materials yourself—as long as you display or possess them with fraudulent intent.³

Example: To save on registration fees, Betty gets her graphic designer friend Greg to make her a license plate sticker that looks exactly like the ones issued by the DMV. Greg is guilty of vehicle registration fraud for creating the counterfeit sticker—but Betty is also guilty for displaying it on her car with fraudulent intent.

Example: Police pull Ronald over on suspicion of robbery. The officers find a large number of blank fake vehicle registration certificates in his car and a paper describing how to forge a driver’s license. This is reliable circumstantial evidence that he intended to use them for fraudulent purposes and is therefore guilty of vehicle registration fraud.⁴

Passing fraudulent smog check certificates as genuine is a form of California vehicle registration fraud.

Publishing or Passing Fraudulent Materials as Genuine

Finally, you are also guilty of vehicle registration fraud if you publish or pass off as genuine, or attempt to pass off as genuine, any fraudulent vehicle registration material—provided you know that it is false, altered, forged or counterfeit.⁵

Example: Harry runs a California smog test shop. He conducts two tests so that when a customer’s car fails a test, Harry can transmit an old duplicate passing test to the DMV. Harry is guilty of Vehicle Code 4463 motor vehicle registration fraud because he knowingly tried to pass off the fraudulent certificates as genuine by submitting them to the DMV for cars that actually did not pass the test.⁶

BUT

Example: Victor has just moved to California from Chile. His sister provides him with a car with fake registration, but Victor does not know it is fake. If Victor ever gets pulled over for false registration, he should be able to beat the charges because he did not knowingly present a counterfeit registration certificate.

The evidence in fraudulent vehicle registration cases is not always sufficient for a guilty verdict.

2. Penalties

Vehicle registration fraud under California Vehicle Code 4463 VC is a “wobbler.” This means prosecutors choose whether to charge it as a misdemeanor or a felony:⁷

This chart illustrates the possible penalties.

Also, if the California DMV believes that you committed fraud in any application you made to them, then they may suspend, revoke, or refuse to issue or renew your California driver’s license.⁸

If this occurs, and you need to drive anyway, then you could be charged with the California crime of driving on a suspended license.

A vehicle registration fraud conviction can lead to the suspension of your driver’s license.

3. Defenses

Here at Shouse Law Group, we have represented literally thousands of people charged with fraud, including car registration fraud. In our experience, the following defenses have proven very popular with judges, juries, and prosecutors at getting this charge reduced or dismissed.

You Lacked Intent to Defraud

We have seen cases where defendants bought a car on Craigslist or were given one by a family member or friend—and only found out later that it came with fraudulent registration materials. They did nothing wrong because they had no fraudulent intent. Since prosecutors were unable to produce enough evidence to prove they had fraudulent intent, their charges were dismissed.

Fraud—including DMV and registration fraud—hinges on the intent of the defendant. Without intent, there is no fraud crime.

There is Insufficient Evidence to Convict You

Many allegations of falsified, counterfeit or fraudulent vehicle registration cases revolve around circumstantial evidence. “Circumstantial evidence” is any evidence that does not directly point to guilt but that instead proves another fact that, in turn, makes the defendant’s guilty more likely.

Circumstantial evidence is perfectly acceptable evidence in California criminal cases. Though it is less powerful than so-called “direct evidence”—and it can be much more difficult for a prosecutor to convince a jury that it shows guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Evidence we typically rely on in cases involving car registration fraud includes:

• the registration documents themselves
• any applications our client made for registration
• recorded communications between our client and the DMV
• eyewitness accounts of someone other than our client forging the registration
• video surveillance footage of someone other than our client forging the registration

4. Related Offenses

• Vehicle Code 20 VC – false statements to the DMV
• Vehicle Code 31 VC – false information to a peace officer
• Vehicle Code 4463(b) & (c) VC – disability placard fraud
• Penal Code 472 PC – forgery of a public seal

False statements to the DMV is often charged along with vehicle registration fraud.

Additional Resources

For more information, refer to these California DMV articles:

• New Registration – Registering a vehicle in California for the first time.
• Vehicle Registration Renewal – How to renew your registration so there are no gaps.
• Title Transfers – How to transfer title to a new legal owner.
• Vehicle Registration Status – How to check online the status of your registration.
• Suspended Registration Reinstatement – How to reinstate your registration after a period of suspension.

Legal References: