Hi,

I have a friend who lives / works for MRC in Fajara.
He has a LHD pajero (older than 5 yrs) in UK.
He has 'registered' the vehicle in Gambia.
The vehicle will be driven UK to Gambia, as cheaply as possible.
I'm thinking it would be good to have the Gambian plates on before reaching Senegal border ?.

Anyone have any experience of this scenario or have any suggestions ?

Kevin - have you got any thoughts on this ?

thanks
Andy

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In a word : don't do it .


Gambian vehicles don't have any proof of ownership . They give you just a photocopy of the register , with your name writen by pen on top of the former owner .
Also , you can not legally register a car until the car has been in Gambia , let alone a RHD which I can assure you will never register it in Gambia . Be aware of the multiple scams of people supposedly " in the goverment/military/douannes" which sort you out with all kind of papers (such as passports , driving licenses , etc. ) Its a scam , they give you fake papers.

been there , done that .

Even that you could register your car in Gambia -which is not the case -, they dont give you any doccument , so you could NOT cross the morocan /Spanish border.

Don't worry about the 5 year old rule in Senegal . Bribes to let you in range now in 20-30 Euros .

I can help with your registration in Gambia *(I am legally a Gambian resident now ) but I insist that Its a very bad idea. Gimme a mail to javier (at) drpdynamics.com or Madrid_Capetown (at) hotmail.com for further info.

Have a nice day

hi andy,
as far as i understand you have a lhd car, which is already registered in the gambia. in this case of course i would put on the gambian plates before reaching the senegalese border.
like that you should be able to get a passavant and avoid the convoi.
i even know people (germans) who managed to get a passavant just because they have had a gambian residence paper. in these cases the cars only have had german export plates.

greetz,
todo

>>even know people (germans) who managed to get a passavant just because >>they have had a gambian residence paper. in these cases the cars only have >>had german export plates.

That's me , for example . I re-registered my bike in the Gambia , to avoid the problem in Senegal for old-cars. I got two set of plates (Spanish and Gambians )


but this is for a Motorbike which is mainly staying in The Gambia . This can be of utility . But swapping plates in the Mauritanian/ Senegalese Borders ... I ll call that a really bad idea .

What's the point anyway ?

the old 5-year rule is hardly enforced at all and only in Rosso /Diama . That is , All other borders INCLUDING BARRA /KARANG / FARAFENI , etc.. dont give a damm about your car being older than 5 years. If you must cross by the north , just Pay a few Euros (20-30), and get your 10 days Passavant with your normal number plates !.

Its funny as that 5-year-old rule thing , which was introduced in 2003 , reached its peak in 2004-2005 and is nowdays rarely enforced , is kept as a legend ,feed by these forums , and a lot of people are either avoiding pointlessly Senegal *(no need) , or doing really bad things *forgery of doccuments* ,*swapping plates* , *fakes CDP* when just 20-30 Euros would get you in Senegal in minutes without any further hassle.

regarding vehicle registering , unless that vehicle has been in Gambia before (which I can infere that from the text) , the vehicle has been illegally registered .Probbably a dodgy number plate , or Vin Number .

Legally registernig a 4x4 would have cost you around 1000 Euuros Duty , plus stamps , plates , on-site-inspection (to check Its not a RHD ) , etc..

you can not register vehicles in Gambia remotely. They can give you some sort of papers , but is just a forgery . Unless the vehicle is physically in the Douanne Registration office in Banjul , they won't issue a registration certificate. A lot of people can produce you one , but they are more often than not just badly made forgeries.

Id seriously advise driving on your EU plates , crossing into Senegal with your car , paying those 20-30 Euros , and only put gambian plates in Gambia once that you are very very sure that the operation is really legal.

Have a nice day.

Beware that there's a scam going on ,about clever lads in Gambia , "registering" remotely cars to supposedly avoid the 5 year old rule , and they don't do actually nohing . They just send you fake papers of another similar vehicle in the Gambia , with a number plate *(you can order number plates everywhere in Gambia without proof of nothing) . Essencially they charge you but they don't actually register the vehicle , so by the time It reaches the border post ,is seized on the spot , etc.. etc..

PDs. If you email me your Gambian reg-number I can work out in a Day if your vehicle is really registered there or not .

Have a nice day .

having said that ...Gambia's police is so under-equipped that they can not check in real time which papers go with each cars. They don't have really a VIN concept , or they raraely know how to check it .

I own 2 tourist taxi(s) in Senegambia (those green Land Rover 109s , driving terrified Britons on the dirt tracks at insane speeds ) and they were NEVER registered neither in Gambia , currently using plates from even a different vehicle (I think they are from a Toyota Hiace) and in a couple years they have never ever a problem -and being stopped by the police every 10 minutes - . They have the SAME! number plate , -and obviously one insurance policy for the two - and .... so far .. so good.

Have a nice day

Hi Andy

Loads of advice there. It is true what Javier says that the Gambians don't really have a registration paper, they use the insurance as a form of I.D.

If you have a Gambian car then you will be issued with a laisser paisser when you LEAVE the country, this document is accepted in countries like Mauri, Senegal, Mali, Bissau, further afield I don't really know. (There was a German guy who drove a Gambian Ford Fiesta up to Germany and back down again, he had no problems I seem to remember). The paper is incidentally the exact same one that you get as a tourist on ENTERING Gambia.

You said that the car is LHD, so this is no problem.

You said that your mate is working at the MRC, I don't know what the registration document for an NGO car in Gambia looks like. If it looks good then you could try it. The only question is where you change the plates. It's probably best to do it in the UK. The worst I can see happening is the Moroccans searching the car at the border and finding 2 sets of documents for the one car (i.e. UK and Gambian).

It seems a lot of trouble just to do something different, I personally wouldn't bother unless the reg. paper looked good and it isn't the shite laissez paisser thing they give you.

What happened to the phantom?

Kevin

Off Topic:

BTW : Kevin ... are you around The Gambia now ?

I have becomed a Gambian Residenct !!!!. Just recently bought off a Plot in Batakunku , waiting to the dry season to start building something. If you are around the area , email me and we can finish off a few crates of Julbrew !

Also I got a car in Kotu that I just dont know what to do with it (ITs a RHD UK M-reg mondeo in fairly good condition) . Any chance to sell it in Bissau ? or better to Scrap it ? Any ideas ?

Cheers

Javier

Hi Javier

I'm in Dublin and will stay here till Janurary or so. Get rid of the Mondeo whatever way you can in Gambia, in Bissau they won't give you that much, unless you fancy the trip anyway. Maybe it's better to scrap it or use it as a chicken shed.

Congrats on becoming a Gambian resident and keep the on ice.

Kevin

thanks for the replies, looks like its best to keep the UK plates & log book untill he gets to his compound. I can see problems getting into Morroco if the Gambian papers don't have a proper registration document showing the registered keeper.

cheers
Andy

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