A 24-year-old man has been arrested for issuing fake insurance and roadworthy stickers in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi.

Abdul Rahman was arrested at Aboabo Number One in an operation in Kumasi on Tuesday. Police retrieved two laptops, a printer and samples of fake insurance stickers when his home was searched.

Area Manager for Ashanti Sector, Kofi Baffour Sencherey, warns motorists to desist from patronizing services of ‘goro’ boys in vehicle documentation.

“We had an information that there were some guys dealing with fake insurance stickers, fake roadworthy stickers and even fake number plates so we had to do an investigations so we brought the police here.

“We are sending signal out to all those engaging in such dubious activities to be mindful because this time the commission will not sit in our offices and watch them, we will make sure they are arrested. Again, we are going to collaborate with the DVLA and see how in future we will conduct this in future because we saw fake number plates as well,” Mr Sencherey said.

Police Detective Gideon Selasi Avemegah, who led the team to affect the arrest, vows the team will track all members of syndicate.

Available information suggests about 40 percent of vehicles in Ghana are said to be either uninsured or have fake insurance stickers.

The National Insurance Commission is partnering police to crack-down on printing and circulation of fake insurance and roadworthy stickers in Ashanti Region.

Officials say the practice is still prevalent despite introduction of electronic system a year ago to address curb the illegality.

The NIC Motor Insurance Database

A new system introduced the Motor Insurance Database (MID) to reduce the incidence of fake insurance stickers.

It was also to ensure insurance companies charge the right premium and issue electronic stickers for easy verification.

Nonetheless, the Commission is worried fake stickers are still common.

Commissioner for Insurance, Justice Ofori, lamented that, “In spite of the introduction of the MID with electronic stickers which have come to replace the old manual stickers, certain unscrupulous entities and individuals have not relented in their fictitious ways of perpetrating this phenomenon to the detriment of unsuspecting members of the general public.

“So far the Ashanti Region leads in the number of arrests made and the lenses of the Regulator are being zoomed in to their last pixels across the country in order to fish out these miscreants to rid our roads off the perpetrators of this phenomenon”, he declared.

Unconfirmed reports also have it that some unscrupulous Insurance Agents are still issuing old manual insurance stickers which have ceased to be valid since January 20, 2020, and backdating them in order to circumvent the MID platform.

In a similar fashion, an Agent took to his heels after presenting a fake Comfund claim to the Kumasi Area Office and is still on the run.

Another suspect, a lawyer, was recently issued a warning letter by the NIC after it was detected that he had been issuing affidavits with different information on different victims of the same accident so as to access the Comfund.

Mr Sencherey observes the trend is costing the commission in such a way that the insurance companies are not getting the right commission or right premium and all the revenue that are supposed to go the insurance companies get to the “goro” boys.

The reality dawns on these motorists only when involved in accidents and innocent third party victims of such accidents are left to take care of themselves without any compensation.

“Innocent vehicle passengers who might board a car and might not know that the car is not properly insured in case of accident those people will not be covered and that is the effect of the fake insurance system.”