Operating an Unregistered Vehicle

The Defendant appealed the trial judge’s decision sustaining the charged violation of G.L. 1956 §31-3-1 (operation of vehicles without evidence of registration).  The Defendant maintained he presented the police officer with a bill of sale for his vehicle to account for the fact that the registration linked to the vehicle’s license plate did not match the vehicle.  The Defendant further contended that he had several days to correct the registration for the license plate.  The Panel reviewed the relevant statute addressing transferring registration from one vehicle to another Here, because the license plate was last registered in 2008 it did qualify for a permissible transfer of a valid registration from one car to another.  Therefore, the Panel found the trial judge was correct in sustaining the charged violation.

City of Providence v. Armais G. Kocharov, C.A. No. T15-0001 (December 17, 2015).pdf