PLEA RELEASE ME: Instagram Ghost Tag Seller Avoids Jail In Deal With AG James

A Brooklyn man who sold fake temporary license plates that allowed reckless drivers to avoid accountability for speeding and other infractions has avoided jail time or a fine in a plea deal with state authorities.

Tyheem Evans, who used the now-disabled Instagram account @DMVTemps to sell the untraceable temporary tags at $210 a pop over a one-and-a-half-year period, pleaded guilty to a single count of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, a class D felony, Attorney General Letitia James announced on Wednesday.

In a statement, James derided Evans for his “petty scheme to line his own pockets while making our roads less safe.”

Here’s how the scam worked: Evans would use his Instagram account to direct message interested clients, who would then send him information about their cars, including make, model, year, color, and the vehicle identification number. After receiving the $210 fee, Evans would send a fake temp tags as a PDF attachment, according to the Attorney General’s office.

Evans had originally been charged with two counts of the class D felony and one count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a lower felony, stemming from what investigators say was the sale of 50 fake tags between April 2022 and September 2023.

The guilty plea on the one count means that Evans won’t see the inside of any jail for his crimes — unless he violates his three-year conditional discharge or fails to complete the mandated 100 hours of community service. He won’t even pay a fine.

Fake temp tags can’t be read by the city’s speed-, red-light or bus-lane cameras, turning a regular car into a “ghost cars” whose driver can’t be held accountable. The fake paper knockoffs also render the driver untraceable in the event of a crash. It’s worth noting that these criminals are rarely tracked down.

Streetsblog’s 2023 award-winning investigative series on ghost cars revealed how a black market of shady car dealerships flourished after the pandemic. The investigation found that more than 100 dealers in New Jersey and Georgia printed over 200,000 fake temp tags between 2019 and 2023. A subsequent video series, Temp Tag Tuesday, revealed how easy it is to get fake temps.

Evans’s scheme put into circulation just a tiny fraction of that number, but he is certainly not the only person using social media to advertise ghost plates in plain sight. A quick search for “temp tags” on Instagram reveals that many rogue dealers continue offering drivers the ability to turn their cars into illegal ghost vehicles for just a few dollars. Some accounts are selling real-looking metal plates or unregistered real plates collecting dust in a junkyard from old cars that would easily fool the city’s automated enforcement camera system.

Evans’s sentencing comes during a yearly focus on fake and altered license plates in New York State. This week, Gov. Hochul announced that state police will send out extra patrols and work with local cops to find fake plates. Hochul’s press release said there is “an increase in the use of fictitious license plates and fraudulent temporary paper tags” right now.

“Drivers who are using fake or altered license plates to avoid tolls or law enforcement are on notice — we do not take this crime lightly and you will be held accountable,” Hochul said in a statement. “This enforcement period is about safety and ensuring that those who are using our highways, bridges and tunnels are paying their fair share.”