Caught With a Tax-Dodged Vehicle You Didn't Import — Are You Liable Too?

This week former minister Johnston Fernando's lawyers told the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court he's pleading guilty to possessing an unregistered luxury vehicle, but he's denying the separate claim that he committed import tax fraud or even owned the car — he says someone else is the real importer and faces a different case in Gampaha. Strip away the politics and it's a real question for ordinary buyers too: if you buy a used vehicle in good faith and it later turns out duties were never paid or the registration was faked, is that your problem or the seller's? Some say possession is possession — the law holds whoever has the keys, so always demand the original import documents and run an RMV check before you pay. Others say that's unrealistic for a private buyer with no customs access, and the real liability should sit with whoever forged the papers or dodged the tax, not the person who bought in good faith. Have you ever bought a vehicle and later found a tax or paperwork problem you didn't cause — who ended up paying for it? මුදල් නොගෙවූ වාහනයක් මිලදී ගත්තොත්, වගකීම ඔබටද?