Will this penalty show up on a criminal background check, or is it considered a traffic offense (much like running a red light or parking in a no-parking zone?)
What happens if you are pulled over and charged with driving a white plate scooter without a license
What’s a “white-plate” scooter mean?
I got stopped without a scooter license once. Just a fine. Led me to take scooter test. Now have it.
It’s not a criminal act.
By white plate I mean under 250cc’s
I was on 125cc. Go to bed.
You won’t get kicked out of Taiwan. Just pay the fine and take scooter test.
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Fine is NT$6,000 to 12,000. 
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Yeah … just a heavty fine …
Unfortunately just imagine you are involved in a serious traffic accident with personal damages and even beyond.
In that case it doesnt matter whether the cause of accident is even at your fault or NOT.
I heard of cases taiwanese families sueing you based on the fact you just should not be there due to illegal driving … and they win even you drove perfectly fine and you were not responsible gor the crash at all.
This alone makes you dumb enough let alone risking it.
Just my 2 Cents
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Were you taken in handcuffs to a prosecutor?
If not then it won’t show up on a criminal background check.
If you were just given a pink slip, it’s a traffic violation, it’s not a criminal conviction.
And Taiwan don’t jail you for failing to pay traffic fines (unlike a certain country that is supposed to be the land of the free).
In case you don’t know what being taken to a prosecutors look like, it’s EXACTLY like an arraignment in a US criminal court. There they will decide if they will release you, require bail, or detain you.
This happens in lots of countries (not Taiwanese families though), no licence means you’re not qualified for the vehicle, therefor you are liable at least for some of the damage. As insurance is void if you don’t have a licence they will come after you personally. You can also sue someone if you hit them and they don’t have a licence.
Which is HILARIOUS, considering how few people here even have drivers licenses
One shouldn’t be allowed to sue someone because they drove like a knob and hit an unlicensed person. It’s still that person’s fault for driving like a knob, no way should they get a financial reward.
Good reason to not drive unlicensed
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Generally people that drive unlicensed dont have anything financial you can take from them. Aka judgement proof, blood from a stone, etc
Still if someone can’t drive they don’t need a financial payout
Maybe. Probably sometimes they have a vehicle, or family, or are foreigners who don’t want to go through the hassle, etc.
Yes. And if everyone were licensed, they wouldn’t get one. I think encouraging people to learn and follow the rules if the road includes licenses as a basic requirement
If that’s the case drive on your own private property. You can do whatever you want on your private property.
However public roads belong to the government so it’s their right to require licensing to use their road.
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Right and so one would rightly get a fine for using the road illegally.
Not pay for a poor drivers mistake.
The way I see it, paying for the poor driver’s mistake is part of the fine
If someone doesn’t want to pay for that, and I certainly wouldn’t, they shouldn’t drive on public roads unlicensed
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Yes you get that also, it’s a view separately. if you caused the accident or not.
This is a private lawsuit, the way I have seen this done in another country and I assume it’s similar here. You are unlicensed for the vehicle so are unqualified to drive it, therefore you are intentionally putting others at risk and this lead to the accident.
As @TT said get a licence and your covered
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Being unqualified to drive doesn’t make someone liable for injury when they didn’t create the injury, imo. Legally it varies country to country but I’m speaking to my personal ethics obviously
That’s not true for Taiwan. You just pay the fine for not having the license.
It will not affect who is at fault or anything regarding the accident.
I know somebody who had accident without a license and got damages paid out from other party, who was at fault.
You will be at fault no matter what if you leave the place of accident, without the police coming. In any case just call the police even if there are no damages.
I had a car slightly bump into me from behind. It was annoying dealing with police for a non issue. In the end he paid 1k to settle it immediately after the police report.
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I do also, the 3 party started to sue to get some of the money back, they came to an agreement in mediation. If the other person had a licence they wouldn’t have had the leverage to reduce the compensation.