The Singapore Police Force and Land Transport Authority impounded 91 deregistered vehicles in a joint islandwide blitz in September 2026. Figures came out on Monday, 5 October. Officers targeted cars and motorcycles still kept or driven after their registration had ended.
Deregistered vehicles are not roadworthy and carry no valid insurance. They also run without a Certificate of Entitlement or road tax. That mix is why the agencies treat them as a road safety risk, not a paperwork quirk.
Higher fines from February
Maximum penalties for keeping or using an unregistered or deregistered vehicle rose on 27 February 2026. First-time offenders face a fine of up to S$20,000 and/or up to two years’ jail. Repeat offenders face double those ceilings.
The September operations put that framework into practice across the island. Annex photos from the agencies show motorcycles stacked on tow trucks outside workshops, and a deregistered car being lifted in an industrial estate after checks confirmed its status.
What owners must do when a car leaves the register
When a vehicle is traded in, ownership transfer should finish before deregistration. The buyer then confirms the transfer on LTA’s OneMotoring site. Hand a car to a dealer for export, and keep the disposal documents for LTA. If that vehicle later turns up misused, investigators go back to the last registered owner.
Owners who skip those steps leave a deregistered machine in limbo. That is the pool the blitz was built to shrink: vehicles that look ordinary on the road but have no COE, no road tax and no insurance behind them.
How to tip off the agencies
Anyone who spots a vehicle they believe is deregistered can report it through OneMotoring or the OneService app. The September sweeps sit alongside the February penalty hike, and both agencies plan to keep the pressure on.
