A driver in Tongguan county, Weinan, Shaanxi province in Northwest China, has been punished after being caught using a fake vehicle license plate.

The driver, surnamed Han, worked for the county's vice-magistrate Zhang Yifeng when he received a vehicle license plate in early 2011 from Weinan city's traffic police without following proper procedures, Chen Lili, deputy director of the publicity department of the county's committee of the Chinese Communist Party of China, said.

Han's driver's license was revoked and he was fined 2,000 yuan ($314), Chen said.

Han had been using the license for about a year when traffic police, not knowing the license was already being used, issued the same license to a resident surnamed Wang on March 28 this year.

Wang then discovered his supposedly brand new license had nine traffic offences marked against it throughout 2011.

Wang soon discovered a Toyota Prado SUV had the same vehicle license plate as he did. Later, he found that the SUV had been used by the deputy county magistrate.

Chen said the SUV was borrowed by the county's government office for the deputy county magistrate to conduct gold mine inspections in the county. Chen did not say where the government borrowed the SUV from.

Weinan traffic police erased Wang's false traffic offense records, and took back the license plate that was being used by the SUV.