A LUCKY driver has escaped a serious punishment after cops pulled him over for an extremely out-of-date license plate.
The motorist was driving around Maine completely unaware he was breaking the law until an officer pulled him over and explained he could be slapped with a tax evasion felony over his dodgy plates.
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Holden Police Chief, Eddie Benjamin, was on a routine road check earlier this month when he noticed an unusual-looking license plate up ahead.
The tags on the back of the vehicle looked a lot different to most of the others seen on the bustling roads of Maine.
After a closer inspection Officer Benjamin quickly realised the plate had expired.
Cops normally have to deal with old tags with motorists forgetting to check the date and their plates being a few weeks or even months old.
But this driver’s tag was a whopping 24 years out-of-date – a first for the entire Maine police department.
Benjamin told Wabi.tv about the unusual pullover saying: “I was driving on 1A, and I noticed this car ahead of me had a plate.
“It appeared to be expired. So, when I got a little closer, I noticed that the year said 2000.
“I pull him over and I ask him ‘What’s going on with this plate? It’s been expired almost 24 years.’.
The driver – who was blissfully unaware of the problem with having two-decade-old plates – explained he bought the car recently in Maine.
Its previous owner took the plates out and knowing he needed some on his motor the man whacked on an old set he had lying around.
One of the biggest issues with his plates was that it meant his car wasn’t legally registered to be on the roads.
This means he has avoided paying the standard tax on the motor – a major problem.
Officer Benjamin explained: “If it’s more than a year (expired) your plate becomes inactive. That plate is no good.
“That’s how the state looks at it. Everybody has to pay for the registration like you and I and it’s just the way that the law is set up.”
Due to the lengthy expiration on the tag the police chief even says he could even be charged with tax evasion.
We made a situation as a good lesson learned. He learned his lesson. He took care of the situation, and everybody was happy in the end
Eddie Benjamin
But Benjamin saw the funny and innocent side to the story so knew he had to help the driver in question rather than slapping him with a huge punishment.
He said: “We ended up giving a ticket and we towed the car, and I educated him which step he should take to make the car legal.
“He was out of state, and he didn’t know the laws. So, we just made sure he got the proper steps to register the car.
“We made a situation as a good lesson learned. He learned his lesson. He took care of the situation, and everybody was happy in the end.”
It comes after a frustrated driver was less than impressed with how officials handled her motor.
Student Esther Liu fears she may have to shell out thousands after her car was badly damaged after it was wrongly towed and impounded.
She says she paid for parking at a normal spot before a tow truck moved her Honda in the middle of the night and “nearly totalled” it by improperly transporting it.
Repairing the car just so it is driveable again could cost her up to $10,000, Esther claims.
As a man whose car was stolen from an airport parking lot has ended up locked in a battle with his insurance company after shelling out twice for the same charge.
Josh Peresta, from Atlanta, flew to Miami for a business trip earlier this summer and returned to find his Infiniti Q50 Sedan missing from its space.
Peresta filed a claim with his insurer Geico and said they agreed to declare the car a total loss of $35,000 only for a nasty surprise to come his way a week later.
Maine’s laws on tax evasion
UNDER Maine law, tax evasion is when an individual intentionally avoids paying their share of taxes.
Punishments range from a hefty fine to years behind bars.
Most charges are split into two sections depending on the amount of cash involved.
Any amount below $2,000 is labelled as Class D and is punishable by up to a year in prison and/or a fine of up to $2,000.
Tax above $2,000 is a Class C offence and can be five year in jail and/or a fine of up to $5,000.
Offenders may also be required to pay a penalty in the amount of 75 per cent of the portion of the underpayment.
However, people caught evading tax often do so down to negligence rather than criminality.
The driver in question would have likely avoided any issues under the negligent act as he didn’t intentionally understand what he was doing was wrong.
