Penal Law § 170.65 · Article 170. Forgery and Related Offenses
Forgery of a vehicle identification number
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 170.65 Forgery of a vehicle identification number.
A person is guilty of forgery of a vehicle identification number when:
(1) He knowingly destroys, covers, defaces, alters or otherwise changes the form or appearance of a vehicle identification number on any vehicle or component part thereof, except tires; or
(2) He removes any such number from a vehicle or component part thereof, except as required by the provisions of the vehicle and traffic law; or
(3) He affixes a vehicle identification number to a vehicle, except in accordance with the provisions of the vehicle and traffic law.
(4) He or she, with intent to defraud, knowingly manufactures, produces or reproduces a vehicle identification number label, sticker or plate which was not manufactured, produced or reproduced in accordance with the rules and regulations promulgated by the United States National Highway Safety Administration and/or in accordance with the provisions of the state vehicle and traffic law.
Forgery of a vehicle identification number is a class E felony.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN170.65
- Text hash
- sha256 27f0c9a3484c090981c546d1c5cba7cd1bf3900ae5e7cd55e937beb6041596e2
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.