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

Vehicle Code 4463 VC is the California law that prohibits fraud or forgery as to vehicle registration certificates, tags or stickers, license plates, or a smog test certificates. Prosecutors can charge this section 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. ^{1 2}

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.

Penalties

Vehicle registration fraud under California Vehicle Code 4463 is what is known as a wobbler. This means it may be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony.³

Misdemeanor car registration fraud carries a potential county jail sentence of up to one (1) year, and/or a fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000).⁴

Felony vehicle registration fraud carries a sentence of sixteen (16) months, two (2) years or three (3) years in jail, and/or a fine of up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000).⁵

Legal defenses

Fortunately, there are a variety of common legal defenses that your California criminal defense attorney can present on your behalf. These include:

• You lacked fraudulent intent; and
• There is insufficient evidence to convict you.

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

• 1. What is vehicle registration fraud in California?
• 2. What are the penalties for a Vehicle Code 4463 CVC violation?
• 3. Are there common defenses to this charge?
• 4. Are there related offenses?
  • 4.1. Vehicle Code 20 giving false information to the DMV
  • 4.2. Penal Code 472 forgery of a public seal
  • 4.3. Vehicle Code 31 false information to a peace officer
  • 4.4. Vehicle Code 4463(b) and (c) disability placard fraud

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 in California?

Falsifying, forging or counterfeiting vehicle registration certificates, license plates or registration stickers violates California’s fraud laws. “Fraud” is generally defined as a deliberate deception in order to secure an unfair or unlawful gain.⁶

California law, 4463 VC, sets out the following legal definition of vehicle registration fraud:

1. Altering, forging, counterfeiting or falsifying a vehicle registration card, license plate, registration sticker or smog certificate, with intent to defraud;
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.⁷

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

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 general crime of California forgery.

Example: Alexei receives a used car as a “gift” from a friend who owes him money and isn’t able to pay him back in cash. Alexei understands that the car is probably stolen.

Luckily, Alexei is skilled at creating counterfeit documents and other materials. He creates a fake California registration certificate, fake California license plate and fake registration sticker, so that he can drive the car around without getting stopped.

Alexei is guilty of vehicle registration fraud for counterfeiting these materials—and he may also be guilty of receiving stolen property for keeping the car.

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.⁸

Example: In addition to registration fees, California charges a vehicle license fee that varies depending on the value of the vehicle.

Kristi moves to California from Nevada. She drives a year-old Mercedes.

Before registering her car 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.

Displaying fraudulent registration materials

You can also be convicted of vehicle registration fraud even if you don’t create the forged or fraudulent materials yourself—as long as you display or possess them with fraudulent intent.⁹

Example: Betty is short of cash when it is time to renew her car registration. She lets the registration expire.

Her friend Greg, who is a skilled graphic designer, offers to make her a sticker that looks exactly like the ones issued by the DMV for placement on license plates. Betty says yes.

Greg makes the sticker, and Betty places it on her car. This allows her to drive and park on city streets without getting pulled over or ticketed for her expired registration.

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 in his car one night because they suspect him of participating in a recent robbery.

The officers find a large number of blank fake vehicle registration certificates in his car, along with blank sheets of selective service cards and a paper describing how to forge a driver’s license.

Ronald was caught in possession of fake registration materials. The large number of fake certificates he possessed, coupled with the other suspicious materials, are reliable circumstantial evidence that he intended to use them for fraudulent purposes.

Thus, he is guilty of vehicle registration fraud.¹⁰

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.¹¹ 

Example: Harry runs a California smog test shop.

Sometimes, when a car comes into the shop and passes the smog test, Harry’s employee Willard will conduct a second test on that car. So Harry’s shop ends up with two smog test certificates indicating that a car has passed. Harry knows that Willard is doing this.

Then, when a car comes in that fails the test, Harry will pretend that it passed—and will transmit one of the extra passing certificates 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.¹²

BUT

Example: Victor has just moved to California from Chile. He gets help in settling in from his sister Elena, who has lived here for many years.

Elena provides Victor with a car to drive while he looks for work. She also provides him with a registration certificate that has the car registered in his name. It turns out that this certificate is fake—but Victor doesn’t know this.

At some point Victor is pulled over. He gives the officer the false registration. The officer immediately recognizes it as a fake and arrests Victor for vehicle registration fraud.

But Victor should be able to beat these charges. He did present a counterfeit registration certificate as genuine—but he did so without knowing that it was counterfeit.

2. What are the penalties for a Vehicle Code 4463 CVC violation?

Vehicle Code 4463 VC car registration fraud is a wobbler. This is a crime that can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony in California.¹³

The prosecutor chooses whether to charge you with vehicle registration fraud as a misdemeanor or a felony. S/he will typically make that choice based on:

• The alleged facts of the case; and
• Your criminal background, if any.

Misdemeanor vehicle registration fraud carries the following penalties:

• Misdemeanor (summary) probation;
• Up to one (1) year in county jail; and/or
• A fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000).¹⁴

Felony vehicle registration fraud carries the following penalties:

• Felony (formal) probation;
• Sixteen (16) months, two (2) years or three (3) years served in county jail under California’s realignment program; and/or
• A fine of up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000).¹⁵

Loss of your driver’s license

Also, if the California DMV believes that, as part of the behavior that led to charges for vehicle registration fraud, you committed fraud in any application you made to them, then they may:

• Refuse to issue you a California driver’s license;
• Refuse to renew your California driver’s license; or
• Suspend or revoke your California driver’s license.¹⁶

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

3. Are there common defenses to this charge?

Fortunately, there are a variety of defenses to a charge of having a false vehicle registration sticker. These include (but are not limited to):

You lacked intent to defraud

If the prosecutor can’t prove that you intentionally committed fraud, you should not be convicted of fraudulent vehicle registration.

You may have bought a car on Craigslist or been given one by a family member or friend—and only found out later that it came with fraudulent registration materials. Police who catch you with those materials may take a “guilty until proven innocent” approach to your case.

But as Glendale criminal defense lawyer John Murray¹⁷ explains:

“The very definition of 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 doesn’t directly point to guilt but that instead proves another fact that, in turn, makes the defendant’s guilty more likely.¹⁸

Circumstantial evidence is perfectly acceptable evidence in California criminal cases.¹⁹ But 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.

Plea bargaining

The fact is that most criminal cases in this state resolve prior to a California criminal jury trial —often through plea bargaining. Plea bargaining allows you the opportunity to agree to a reduced charge and/or a reduced sentence in exchange for a dismissal of the more serious charge of fraudulent car registration.

If the prosecutor isn’t convinced that s/he will be able to secure a guilty verdict, s/he may be willing to accept a plea to a less serious charge, such as a Vehicle Code infraction.

4. Are there related offenses?

Other California crimes that are closely related to Vehicle Code 4463 car registration fraud include:

4.1. Vehicle Code 20 giving false information to the DMV

If you knowingly make a false statement—or knowingly conceal any material fact—in a registration document that you file with the California DMV, then you can be charged with Vehicle Code 20 VC false statements to the DMV.²⁰

It is common for defendants to be charged with registration fraud and giving false information to the DMV.

VC 20 false statements to the DMV is a misdemeanor, with a potential jail sentence of up to six (6) months and a potential fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000).²¹ 

4.2. Penal Code 472 forgery of a public seal

Fraudulent car registration materials can also be associated with the crime of forgery of a public seal under Penal Code 472 PC.

This law makes it a crime to possess and “willfully conceal” a counterfeit seal of a government entity, with the intent to use it to commit a fraud.²²

If you conceal forged DMV documents, you may be charged with forgery of a public seal and Vehicle Code 4463.

Like vehicle registration fraud, forgery of a public seal is a “wobbler” in California law.²³

4.3. Vehicle Code 31 false information to a peace officer

Vehicle Code 31 VC makes it a crime to give any information to a peace officer—either in writing or orally—when you know that information is false.²⁴

So if you are caught with a registration certificate, registration sticker, etc., that you know is counterfeit or altered, and you tell the law enforcement officer that the materials are genuine, you may be charged with vehicle registration fraud and giving false information to a peace officer.

Giving false information to a peace/police officer is a misdemeanor in California.²⁵

4.4. Vehicle Code 4463(b) and (c) disability placard fraud

Vehicle Code 4463(b) and (c) cover the separate offense of fraud or forgery of disabled parking placards.

This is the crime of creating, passing as genuine, acquiring, selling or displaying forged or counterfeit disability parking placards, with intent to defraud.²⁶

Disabled parking placard fraud is a misdemeanor, carrying a jail sentence of six (6) months and a fine of two hundred fifty dollars ($250) to one thousand dollars ($1,000).²⁷

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