One suspect from a gang of alleged forgers is held by police.

A gang producing fake police papers was taken down after an online taxi driver was caught trying to deceive traffic law enforcers, Shanghai police said on Tuesday.

In Shanghai, unlicensed Internet-based taxi drivers will have their cars seized by traffic law enforcers with the transportation commission once discovered. Offenders can reclaim their seized vehicles only with a document from police stating that their driving licenses will be suspended for three to six months.

In April, one such driver was found presenting a suspicious-looking document while trying to get his car back. He was reported to traffic authorities in Jing'an District, who confirmed that the document was fake.

According to police, the driver, a man surnamed Pan, admitted that he bought the fake paper on the Internet for 8,000 yuan (US$1,130) through a friend, in hopes of retrieving his car as soon as possible in order to start working illegally again.

Through their investigation, police uncovered a gang which created fake police papers for unlicensed ride-sharing drivers who wanted to recover their cars without being punished by police.

Five suspects, including producers of the fake papers and illegal taxi drivers who used them, have been arrested. They could face criminal charges of forgery and trading fake government papers, police said.

Liu Xiaowei, vice chief of the accident investigation squad at the Jing’an traffic police, told Shanghai Daily that police have not yet started to share their legal papers with other government departments.

“Illegal taxi drivers have been bringing the papers to traffic law enforcers without the latter’s knowledge of our decisions,” he said.