HAIL: Car drifters have devised new ways to escape the clutches of law and are now stealing number plates (registration numbers) from abandoned vehicles and some even resorting to setting alight vehicles, even belong to their fathers in some cases, a top official has said.

“Detection becomes very difficult after the vehicle is burnt. The culprits don’t want to leave any fingerprints or proof. And using false number plates leads the police to a wild goose chase,” Brig. Khaled Al-Dhubaib, director of Traffic Department in Hail region, was quoted as saying by local media on Saturday.

Nowadays, some children even set their fathers’ cars afire after stealing them for performing stunts, he said, adding that such behavior threatens the security of the nation, especially that it has become almost a phenomenon in different regions of the country.

Al-Dhubaib said the phenomenon does exist and that efforts are under way to eliminate it.

“There are deterrent sanctions against drifters,” he said, adding that if a drifter is arrested for the first time, he is detained for five days and the vehicle is impounded for 15 days, in addition to a fine of SR 1,000.

“If the drifter is arrested for a second time, he will be sentenced to 10 days in prison, the vehicle impounded for 30 days and fined SR1,500. If the violation is repeated for the third time, the drifter is sentenced to 45 days in prison, fined SR2,000 and the vehicle confiscated for good,” he said.

Al-Dhubaib said that during the last five years, the Hail traffic department confiscated or collected the value of 21 vehicles.

“There is a sustained campaign against drifters. During the first four months of this year, 2,446 vehicles were impounded, and 1,450 abandoned vehicles in the industrial zone were removed because the young men used to steal the numbers plates and use them on their vehicles for drifting to delude the security members.”

Sharida Al-Saqri, owner of a stolen car, was quoted as saying that his vehicle was found burned in one of the drifting yards and its tires were worn out because of the drifting.

Meshari Al-Mubarak from Buraidah said that the youth practice drifting in neighborhoods now because of the absence of control and monitoring. “Young men use social media to specify their drifting locations to invite people interested in the event,” he said.