Japanese Police now has the right to seize cryptocurrency from those who violate traffic laws. That is to say, if you park badly, if you don’t respect a traffic light or if you stop where you shouldn’t, you are exposed to the authorities retaining your digital assets (among other assets) as collateral to ensure that you pay the fine.
In this context, local media in Japan reported that the traffic guidance division of the Hyogo prefecture police announced this week that they had confiscated the cryptocurrency holdings of a 59-year-old resident on multiple parking violation charges.
The Kobe Shimbun media reported that around 44 USD was seized in cryptos, but police did not reveal whether it was in Bitcoin (BTC) or some other crypto.
The media channel specified that if by the end of this month, the payment is not received, at the deadline for claiming the seized property, the retained cryptocurrency will be charged at the current rate and given to the prefectural police.
Japanese police can retain cryptocurrency to cover traffic fines
Normally, according to NewsBitcoin and the mandates of the Japan Public Safety Commission, “land, houses, cars, bank savings, wages, and life insurance payments could be seized.”
Still, the 59-year-old man’s case is a little different because the police had no records of his workplace, nor any bank information about statements or cash deposits. The confiscation of their cryptocurrency was possible because in previous months cryptocurrency was declared and legalized as a mean of payment.
According to police reports, after the crypto assets were recognized by the funds’ settlement law that was implemented in April last year, digital coins were sanctioned as an asset that can be seized.
This method used by the police has been highly effective in getting offenders to pay fines. If you choose not to pay, you may lose more than what not obeying the rules would cost you. Also, if it takes too long to pay a fine, you risk losing whatever has been seized, in this case, cryptocurrency.
