House Bill 509

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 63-25-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CLARIFY THAT ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLES AND OFF-ROAD VEHICLES ARE MOTOR VEHICLES FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE MOTOR VEHICLE CHOP SHOP, STOLEN AND ALTERED PROPERTY ACT, WHICH MAKES IT ILLEGAL TO ALTER A VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 63-25-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

63-25-3. As used in Sections 63-25-1 through 63-25-11, the following terms shall have the meaning ascribed to them herein:

(a) "Chop shop" means any building, lot or other premise where one or more persons are or have been knowingly engaged in altering, destroying, disassembling, dismantling, reassembling or knowingly storing any motor vehicle or motor vehicle part known to be illegally obtained by theft, fraud or conspiracy to defraud, in order to either:

(i) Alter, counterfeit, deface, destroy, disguise, falsify, forge, obliterate or remove the identity, including the vehicle identification number of such motor vehicle or motor vehicle part in order to misrepresent the identity of such motor vehicle or motor vehicle part, or to prevent the identification of such motor vehicle or motor vehicle part; or

(ii) Sell or dispose of such motor vehicle or motor vehicle part.

(b) "Motor vehicle" includes every device in, upon or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, which is self-propelled or which may be connected to and towed by a self-propelled device, and shall also include any and all other land-based devices which are self-propelled but which are not designed for use upon a highway, including, but not limited to, farm machinery * * * ~~and~~, construction equipment, all-terrain vehicles and off-road vehicles.

(c) "Person" includes a natural person, company, corporation, unincorporated association, partnership, professional corporation and any other legal entity.

(d) "Unidentifiable" means that the uniqueness of a motor vehicle or motor vehicle part cannot be established by either expert law enforcement investigative personnel specially trained and experienced in motor vehicle theft investigation procedures and motor vehicle identification examination techniques, or by expert employees of not-for-profit motor vehicle theft prevention agencies specially trained and experienced in motor vehicle theft investigation procedures and motor vehicle identification examination techniques.

(e) "Vehicle identification number" means a number or numbers, a letter or letters, a character or characters, a datum or data, a derivative or derivatives, or a combination or combinations thereof, used by the manufacturer for the purpose of uniquely identifying a motor vehicle or a motor vehicle part.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2013.