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Original poster

Cloned number plate - what next?

17 replies

ChristmasWithBellsOn · 30/12/2021 20:18

We received a traffic violation bill today.

The accompanying CCTV stills show a similar looking car (black hatchback, in the dark) with our number plates.

We absolutely were not driving in the time/place that the offense took place.

We presume our plates have been cloned.

We reported it to the police and DVLA. And contested the charge.

Is there anything else we need to do?

I feel quite violated that someone took something that is 'ours' even if not physically, and I worry that they are close by and actually saw our car, parked outside our house.

The driving offense was about 1/2 a mile away (in London).

OP posts:
Ieatmarmite · 30/12/2021 20:46

This happened to me a couple of years ago. I reported it to the police who weren't at all interested and to the DVLA who were also very unhelpful. I was lucky because my numberplate was slightly different to the one on the cloned car and I was able to send a photo of my car when I contested the charge and the parking company cancelled it. It happened twice more and then stopped. I was worried about speeding charges or if the clone was involved in an accident. I wonder, with hindsight if I should have spoken to my insurance company, just incase.

I suspected a particular person of cloning the numberplate but had no proof.

WeDontTalkAboutBruno · 30/12/2021 20:55

Buy yourself a sticker, something you can see on camera and say 'Thats my car". I have a guy martin skull and spanners on my back bumper and if ever my car was cloned I could say without doubt and prove it wasn't mine.

elelel · 30/12/2021 20:57

@WeDontTalkAboutBruno

Buy yourself a sticker, something you can see on camera and say 'Thats my car". I have a guy martin skull and spanners on my back bumper and if ever my car was cloned I could say without doubt and prove it wasn't mine.

It wouldn't prove anything beyond doubt because a sticker could be added to your car at any time.

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Driving & parking
WeDontTalkAboutBruno · 30/12/2021 21:09

It wouldn't prove anything beyond doubt because a sticker could be added to your car at any time

This is something the Police themselves advise, some forces have gone as far as putting a green sticker on the plate of the cloned car.

Loopyloulou007 · 30/12/2021 21:17

There was a news article I saw where a womens car was cloned, going through congestion zone daily, parking tickets you name it, she ended up with thousands of pounds of charges, debt collection chasing, as none of her appeals were successful. Police wouldn't help, no one would, so she turned detective herself. Parking tickets were all in a similar area, so she drove around and parked next to her cloned car and took a photo, then called the police for evidence and a crime Ref No. It took her years, but it's becoming more regular. Good luck! I would suggest going to Facebook like "appealing a parking charge" page, as they have lots of knowledgeable people on there. Do you have witnesses to say you were not where the ticket states you were. Get as much evidence to back yourself up. Receipt from when you went shopping etc.

elelel · 30/12/2021 21:19

@WeDontTalkAboutBruno

It wouldn't prove anything beyond doubt because a sticker could be added to your car at any time

This is something the Police themselves advise, some forces have gone as far as putting a green sticker on the plate of the cloned car.

I don't really understand why the police would advise this, it doesn't prove anything to anyone.

Squirrelblanket · 30/12/2021 21:26

This happened to us. We could prove that our car was parked in a different location at the time of the offence. They asked for photos of our car and the car the caught on the footage was obviously a different car. They said they would cancel our violation and would let us know what happened with locating the other car. They rang us six months after to say they hadn't found the other car and they were closing the case.

PatriotCanes · 30/12/2021 21:27

I got a crime number and used that to contest the fine, reported to the DVLA - luckily our car was blue and the cloned car although same make and model was silver. I had two notices in two days and was dreading it being a regular thing but I only ever got those two fines which were immediately cancelled.

Original poster
ChristmasWithBellsOn · 30/12/2021 21:32

I wondered about putting a highly visible sticker on our car, but like @elelel I thought that anyone could put a sticker on any time.

There are a few things from the stills that show it's not our car, but they're very subtle, and the stills are gritty:

1.The shape of the rear lights looks slightly off, but the car in the still is in motion and it's dark

  1. Ours has the dealership logo on the plates, the stills don't show it (but it's small IRL)
  2. The font used for the number plate in the stills looks slightly off, but I can't explain how
  3. The roof of the car in the stills appears ridged, ours isn't
  4. There appear to be reflective strips under the headlights, we don't have those

But the stills are so rubbish it's tricky to be sure.

We've applied for CCTV camera footage from the time from outside our house (where the car was parked) hopefully that exists, and if it does it'll prove the car was here.

We have a car app which shows we didn't drive it at all in that date, but I guess that's no proof as the app could easily be turned off (not sure how, but I'm sure it's possible).

Like @leatmarmite my main concern is that the car is used for something awful, plus I hate the idea of people poking around outside our house.

OP posts:
WeDontTalkAboutBruno · 30/12/2021 21:36

@ChristmasWithBellsOn

I wondered about putting a highly visible sticker on our car, but like *@elelel* I thought that anyone could put a sticker on any time.

There are a few things from the stills that show it's not our car, but they're very subtle, and the stills are gritty:

1.The shape of the rear lights looks slightly off, but the car in the still is in motion and it's dark

  1. Ours has the dealership logo on the plates, the stills don't show it (but it's small IRL)
  2. The font used for the number plate in the stills looks slightly off, but I can't explain how
  3. The roof of the car in the stills appears ridged, ours isn't
  4. There appear to be reflective strips under the headlights, we don't have those

But the stills are so rubbish it's tricky to be sure.

We've applied for CCTV camera footage from the time from outside our house (where the car was parked) hopefully that exists, and if it does it'll prove the car was here.

We have a car app which shows we didn't drive it at all in that date, but I guess that's no proof as the app could easily be turned off (not sure how, but I'm sure it's possible).

Like @leatmarmite my main concern is that the car is used for something awful, plus I hate the idea of people poking around outside our house.

Obviously it wont help you now, but in the future having something that can instantly differentiate your car from the cloned one will make life easier. Photograph it with your phone if you prefer, it will time stamp.

If Road Policing are looking for a car with the reg CL06NED they can add notes to the information held on that vehicle when they do an ANPR Check. So CL06NED with a green sticker from the local RP team would instantly tell them it's not that one.

Original poster
ChristmasWithBellsOn · 30/12/2021 21:37

Annoyingly the CCTV footage in the penalty notice is from nearly midnight, so there are no witnesses to our whereabouts.

Just noticed though, the cloned plate has a smaller gap between the bottom of the letters/numbers and the bottom of the plate than ours. That was what felt funny about the picture of the cloned plate.

OP posts:
ihearttc · 30/12/2021 21:38

We had exactly the same issue but our car was a different colour, but same make. It didn’t help initially as the picture was in black and white. We could prove we were somewhere else on that day so it eventually got dropped but took ages. We sold the car soon afterwards as I was paranoid of it happening again.

Original poster
ChristmasWithBellsOn · 30/12/2021 22:06

I feel the same @iheartttc the downside being that our car is only 4 months old, barely done 900 miles 😞

I think that's the shitter, it just feels like we can't have anything nice without some toad trying to spoil it.

OP posts:
Wiaa · 30/12/2021 22:16

We've had this, we actually went into a station they gave us a number of the specific department who deals with the fines/photography proof and they asked us to email in very specific photos of our car. We eventually received a letter cancelling the fine and asking us to put black tape on our number plates

Original poster
ChristmasWithBellsOn · 30/12/2021 22:29

Ooo do you mean a police station @wisaa ?

I guess we'd need to go into one in the same borough that sent the fine/notice?

Maybe we could start with just.calling the relevant council and asking to speak to the traffic violation people?

OP posts:
Wiaa · 30/12/2021 22:54

Yes ours was a speed camera so was issued by the police. It was on a road that was fairly close to where we live but we knew it wasn't us. 2am in the morning on boxing day when I was 4months pregnant but like everyone else on here we were worried we had no proof. The police were really helpful.

Original poster
ChristmasWithBellsOn · 30/12/2021 23:03

Ah ha, ours was driving through a bicycle only junction, so the notice came from the council.

Such a pain.

OP posts:
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