Registration Numbers Club

Dolly the sheep - Not the only clone we know of

An increase in car number plate cloning is now, sadly, responsible for many law-abiding motorists receiving fines for offences they didn't commit, such as speeding or illegal parking.

Whilst this is the vehicle equivalent of identity theft, it seems that the police just don't want to know; saying “it happens all the time” and simply issuing a crime number.

An estimate from the police says there are almost 100,000 cloned vehicles on British roads, with the criminals using plates, either stolen from an identical vehicle, or having copies made up. The cloned vehicles then pass a brief police check, as the make, model and colour match the registration.

Drivers generally only realise that their vehicle registration has been cloned when they receive a fine in the post and, in a 'guilty until proven innocent' situation, it is up to them to prove that they were not where the document said they were at the time in question. It is, unfortunately, a time-consuming business; as one of the Registration Numbers Club members knows only too well.

He was shocked to receive a penalty charge notice recently, accusing him of failing to respond in the allotted time to a parking fine, issued some six weeks previously and over one hundred miles from his home town. Upon making further enquiries, he was able to view a photograph of the offending vehicle online, complete with parking ticket attached to its windscreen. Whilst the vehicle in question did bear his own rather striking cherished plate, he saw that it was not on the same as his. It was, however, on a vehicle similar in type and colour to one, owned by his wife, which had a completely different cherished registration.

This was a distressing time for the innocent victim with an enormous amount of telephone calls and correspondence needed to sort the problem out over a period of almost a month. He also had to contact the DVLA as with his wife's car being similar to the type committing the offence, they would have continued to give out his details to the parking enforcement company if it happened again.

What was so strange about this offence was the use of a very striking plate on the wrong type of car. He was just lucky that a roadside camera had not picked up the mis-match before. It is not uncommon for fraudsters to use someone else's registration on a vehicle to avoid paying parking fines, speeding tickets or congestion charges. But, usually a nondescript number is used, to avoid being noticed. The authorities can, of course, locate the registered keeper of a prominent plate just as quickly as a regular issue.

Some drivers will inevitably turn this situation to their advantage and claim that they have been victims themselves, whilst others are illegally altering number plates with anything that comes to hand; bolts, black tape, etc., to try and avoid the ever increasing number of traffic cameras and congestion charging areas.

Despite government attempts to reduce the problem, it continues to increase. Registered number plate suppliers must check personal and vehicle information before supplying plates, but this has just led to more plates being stolen from similar vehicles. In fact there were over 40,000 such thefts last year, with many victims not even bothering to report them.

What should you do if you become a victim? You should complete and return any fine notices and correspondence to the authorities, as failure to do so will only exacerbate the problem. You should provide documentary evidence to them to prove your case, such as proof of your location at the time of the alleged offence, and you should alert both the police and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

Further guidelines are available at www.direct.gov.uk

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