KUALA LUMPUR: A viral photo of a Perodua Bezza with an FF 2 plate number was a doctored snapshot.
Road Transport Department director-general Datuk Zailani Hashim told Harian Metro that checks have revealed that the original plate number of the vehicle is KFF 2 and not FF2.
The FF2 plate number was sold for RM638,000 in a recent bidding process for the new "FF" series of plate numbers.
He confirmed that part of the plate number in the viral photo had likely been edited by a netizen.
"The RTD has no issue if the FF2 registration number is registered on any type of vehicle, be it a car or motorcycle.
"The government via the RTD has received payment from the bidder who participated in the bidding process (via JPJeBid online application) for this plate number.
"However, the situation is different if after an investigation, the department finds that there is a modification made to the registration number from KFF 2 to FF 2," he said when explaining a possible scenario.
He said modifying a vehicle registration number was an offence under Section 108(3)(e) of the Road Transport Act 1987 (Act 333) for altering, tampering, defacing mutilating or marking a vehicle registration plate or docuement.
Recently, a Twitter user shared a photo of a woman allegedly stepping out of a Perodua Bezza with the 'FF 2' licence plate.
On May 22, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the vehicle registration number bidding for the "FF" series netted a record-high collection of RM34.29 million, with the FF 8 plate topping the biddings at RM950,000.
He said 34,032 people participated in the bidding process from May 14 to 19, and 8,348 of the bidders were successful.
He said apart from FF 8, the next most expensive plates were FF 9 (RM911,999), FF 3 (RM639,000) and FF 2 (RM638,000).
He said the five numbers which attracted the most interest were FF 199 with 34 bidders, FF 51 with 32 bidders, FF 155, FF 555 and FF 1688 with 29 bidders each.