To be pissed off at getting a bus lane fine when it isn't my car!

[CoconutSty]

City I've never been to in my life, opposite end of the country, at 4.30am. The photo shows a different colour car to mine but the reg is the same. Bloody fake number plate!! What are my chances at getting this squashed?? At 4.30am on the night in question my car was tucked up asleep on my drive way about 700 miles away, which of course I can't prove! 😡😡

The op has clearly stated that the colour is wrong, my DH's was completely the wrong vehicle. I think both of them can be easily proven.

OP - is the reg definitely the same? On first appearances the van that was not an Audi had the same number plate, but it actually wasn't (I think a D not an O type thing) It was the angle as well that slightly distorted it.

And I posted quite clearly that I have actually experienced this and challenged it successfully. Taking responsibility for your own errors is one thing, but meekly rolling over to enable criminals is quite another.

It's not 'rules', it's a mistake.

My DHs car was shown to be in a bus lane in Central London whilst I was away and his car was hundreds of miles away at a supermarket at the time of the picture. I could prove I was away, and he could prove where he was.

It is easily proven. The photo shows a different car to the one that legally has the registration. Case closed!

The OP hadn't realised that it would be easy to prove it wasn't her car. Not everyone knows that the registration includes the car colour as well as its male and model.

And often a picture of the driver!

*make

It might that be a fake fine letter.

I got a bailiffs threatening letter out of the blue, as I had similar but hadn't updated the address on my car registration so the first notice had gone to my old address. It was a fine for parking in a bus stop, in an area I'd never been to. Luckily I managed to get through to a human being in the council who'd issued the fine, and they found that it was a digit misread from the photo of the number plate. So it was cancelled. It had been a stressful few hours trying to get it sorted though!

I find it cute your car was fast asleep.

For me, I was concerned that the car had been cloned and a bus lane ticket was the least of our worries. At the time we very much felt that no-one particularly cared and wasn't that interested in trying to resolve it for us.

My late OH used to run the village Speed Watch group and it was amazing how the number plate they recorded did not belong to the vehicle they'd seen when they checked them out.

I’ve had about 12 PCNs recently. All within my local area, I know it’s not me or Dh but it’s the same car. Reported to the police, they gave me a ref number and I challenged with the issuers. All but 1 have been cancelled. Bloody worrying when they first started coming through

Contact them & point out your car is a different colour. That should be sufficient.

Do report it to your local police though so they can put a marker on the PNC

My Dad's number plates were cloned once. First he knew was when the Police showed up wanting to look at his car as a vehicle with his number plates had been responsible for an abduction & assault.

Ive had similar happen to me, don't worry OP. Just send back photos of your vehicle, with numberplate clearly in view as well as the fact that your car is clearly not the one caught on the camera. (Mine was a red car and the offending vehicle was a white van). It happens a lot clearly judging by the comments on this thread, but they will automatically send the notice out based on the numberplate - but they will cancel the penalty if you send the evidence in

Have also had similar happen to me. In my case car colour, make and model was correct - but my number plate style was subtly different, and that was enough for the various authorities - TfL, several local London boroughs and a car park - to accept it wasn’t me. I also included receipts from the shops I was visiting in Suffolk at the same time I was supposed to be speeding on bus lanes through London. Get a police crime number, take photos of your car, pour yourself a glass of wine and vent.

you may get a few, I’m afraid

this happened to me and the plates were used in a robbery as well as a bus lane fine and speed camera. I didn't pay anything and did get it sorted

It'll easily be cancelled.
I had a similar thing happen, but the car in question had a very similar number plate to mine and the camera had read it wrong. Mine was TKW and the car pictured was TKN, it was the same car make but a different colour. Number plates are registered to exact cars so it should not be a problem.

This happened to my daughter, she didn’t have to pay it

This happened to me. I called the number on the letter and explained. They were understanding and I never heard about it again.

I received one of these letters in the post, in the past

I checked my diary & confirmed that I was at work that day

I replied to the letter & they agreed that I didn't owe the fine

It’s not a big problem, happened to us last year. We just sent back photos of our car and said it looks liked cloned plates and they cancelled the fine. we also flagged with police.

I got one of these, and on closer examination, the reg was one digit off. Apparently the problem with D's and O's is quite an issue, according to the council person I spoke to while sorting it out. The fact that one car was a Ford Ka and the other was a Land Rover and they were 200 miles away helped as well!

Easy to sort. My DC had a speeding ticket 400 miles away from where his car with a black box was tucked up, sleeping. I had a CCJ for driving into a lamppost, knocking it over and causing all sorts of chaos when my car was sat outside my house on an island far away!

Just phone the number, tell them your number plate must be cloned and you'll be fine. Happens all the time.