The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has impounded 357 vehicles suspected of having cloned chassis numbers or being imported into Ghana without the required customs procedures.
The vehicles have been handed over to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for the appropriate taxes and duties to be determined before they can be registered.
DVLA Chief Executive Officer Julius Neequaye Kotey disclosed this at the Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House on Monday, October 12, 2026.
He said the operation followed the introduction of On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) devices to verify vehicle identification details and detect irregularities before registration.
According to Mr Kotey, some individuals had allegedly imported vehicles into Ghana through unapproved routes and used identification details belonging to other vehicles for which customs duties had already been paid.
He explained that the practice could enable imported vehicles to evade the payment of the appropriate taxes and duties by fraudulently reusing existing vehicle identification details.
“With the introduction of these OBD devices, we can detect cloned and uncustomed vehicles,” Mr Kotey said.
“These vehicles are impounded and handed over to Customs to charge the appropriate taxes before they can be registered.”
He said the DVLA had impounded and transferred 357 vehicles to the GRA as of October 9, 2026.
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The intervention, he explained, is aimed at protecting government revenue, strengthening the integrity of vehicle registration and preventing vehicles with questionable import or identification records from being registered without the necessary checks.
The exercise forms part of broader reforms by the DVLA to improve vehicle identification and enforcement.
Other measures include the introduction of tamper-proof dealer’s plate stickers and plans to introduce radio-frequency identification (RFID)-enabled number plates to strengthen vehicle identification and monitoring.
