Hong Kong’s ombudsman calls for tougher laws to combat abandoned vehicles after report finds only 8 cases prosecuted in last 2 decades
- Problem persists because authorities focus on removal of vehicles instead of holding owners accountable, according to watchdog
- Ombudsman Winnie Chiu says issue continued even after Home Affairs Department intervened and removed more than 1,600 abandoned vehicles
Hong Kong’s ombudsman has called on authorities to introduce tougher regulations against those who dump unwanted vehicles on roadsides or in public parking spaces, after finding only eight cases were prosecuted in the past two decades.
The government watchdog released the results of its investigation on Thursday, explaining that the problem persisted because authorities had only focused on the removal of the abandoned vehicles instead of holding the owners accountable.
“Vehicle owners can wilfully abandon their vehicles. Stepped-up efforts by the government to remove vehicles abandoned on the roadside have in effect helped vehicle owners dispose of their vehicles for free,” Ombudsman Winnie Chiu Wai-yin said.
Chiu said the issue continued even after the Home Affairs Department had intervened and removed more than 1,600 abandoned vehicles from government land since 2021.
The crux of the problem was that the Lands Department had stopped collecting evidence and taking legal action against offenders since 2007 because of a low number of successful prosecutions, she said.
She added that collecting evidence remained difficult even though authorities could identify each vehicle with a unique identification number.
“Currently the Transport Department will deregister vehicles which have not been renewed for more than two years,” she said.
