How to catch a cloned plate scammer?
Discussion
My plates have been cloned and the scumbag responsible seems to be racking up parking tickets, speeding fines and other naughty behaviour. My car is also ULEZ exempt and theirs isn’t (as it’s a diesel) and all tickets so far are in ULEZ areas, so there’s ULEZ evasion, too…
Anyone know what information would make the police/DVLA/councils act more quickly/robustly on this? If they had the VIN for the car on false plates, would that make any difference?
Would they even do anything if they knew the location of the car?
I’m mostly venting here, but idly wondering what would stop people like this getting away with this type of stuff…
Anyone know what information would make the police/DVLA/councils act more quickly/robustly on this? If they had the VIN for the car on false plates, would that make any difference?
Would they even do anything if they knew the location of the car?
I’m mostly venting here, but idly wondering what would stop people like this getting away with this type of stuff…
RoVoFob said:
My plates have been cloned and the scumbag responsible seems to be racking up parking tickets, speeding fines and other naughty behaviour. My car is also ULEZ exempt and theirs isn’t (as it’s a diesel) and all tickets so far are in ULEZ areas, so there’s ULEZ evasion, too…
Anyone know what information would make the police/DVLA/councils act more quickly/robustly on this? If they had the VIN for the car on false plates, would that make any difference?
Would they even do anything if they knew the location of the car?
So, after a little sleuthing, I’ve found the car with cloned plates, have the location, VIN, new plates it’s now on and have confirmed that they’ve cloned someone else’s car and have the new clonee’s contact details, as their car is up for sale. Is all policing stuff this easy? Anyone know what information would make the police/DVLA/councils act more quickly/robustly on this? If they had the VIN for the car on false plates, would that make any difference?
Would they even do anything if they knew the location of the car?
Can the DVLA track the owner/establish what the plates should be from the VIN?
Maybe this self-solving thread is some payback to the PH gods for my endless, lumbering ‘Recommend-me-a-car-that’s-exactly-like-an-Audi-S4-but-isn’t-an-Audi-S4’ posts
Edited by RoVoFob on Tuesday 20th June 01:25
Geertsen said:
How have you done that!? That’s pretty good going 
Received three residents’ parking tickets from two areas that were close together, following two driving offences within five miles or so. Assumed that the residents’ parking location was pretty near to where the scammer lived, so went to have a look.Found a car with the same distinctive damage as the one pictured in the fines sent to me, saw it had several parking tickets on the windscreen, a new number plate and knew where the VIN plate was, as it was visible on the fine pics, though not legible.
So, grabbed a pic of the new reg and VIN plate and assumed that they had stolen a plate from a similar car on Autotrader, as mine is currently up for sale and imagine that’s where they got the plate from. And bingo, there’s another similar car with the plate they’ve cloned. Will be giving them a call later and letting them know their car’s been cloned, if they’re not already aware…
andyA700 said:
I don't know how to solve the problems of cloned plates, but I do know there have been around a dozen thefts of plates over the past few months in my large village.
Actual physical plates being stolen? I find this weird. The criminals are then opening themselves up to easy-to-prove theft claims, surely…Geertsen said:
That’s brilliant!
This sort of thing will just carry on because there doesn’t seem to be any consequences does there. The police are so overstretched in urban areas that they wouldn’t even do what you’ve done. And the person doing the cloning is just constantly changing plates by the sound of it and causing people like yourself a lot of inconvenience. At the risk of scaremongering, I wonder if they’ll go back to your plate at any point? ...seen as they already have the plates made up.
Just had a call back from the guy whose cloned plates are currently on the car.This sort of thing will just carry on because there doesn’t seem to be any consequences does there. The police are so overstretched in urban areas that they wouldn’t even do what you’ve done. And the person doing the cloning is just constantly changing plates by the sound of it and causing people like yourself a lot of inconvenience. At the risk of scaremongering, I wonder if they’ll go back to your plate at any point? ...seen as they already have the plates made up.
Sounds like he’s had it worse than me with twice as many fines, tickets and other crap. And his plate is still on the car, as of last night…
The only way to stop law-breaking scumbags - from Boris to this plate-cloning tool - is to show them the most serious possible consequences to their actions by not letting things slide. Will see what I can do with one of them, at least…
Smint said:
At the risk of looking foolish, again, presumably now you've done plods job for them you've informed them so they can arrest said nacker as soon as the reg pings? ok i know, more chance of pissing in Camilla's handbag.
Well done chap.
Yes. I’ve given everything from the location of the car to the VIN, my cloned plate, the second cloned plate I’m aware of, said I have photos etc. etc. etc. The response is absolute crap.Well done chap.
“The use of cloned plates is not currently a criminal offence, however, vehicles will be circulated on the Police data base to allow officers to stop vehicles matching the registration of the cloned vehicle to investigate if the vehicle is legitimate.”
So, basically might as well SORN all your cars, stick some cloned plates on and relax…
Mr-B said:
I wouldn't mind betting the scrotes list of crimes doesn't start and end with a cloned plate and dodged ULEZ. Bet it has got no insurance, tax, MOT and guessing other low level crimes involved too. If the police (and more importantly the courts) did their job this scumbag should be locked up, fined, banned and car crushed, can't stand these w
kers.
If they’re doing 67mph in a 30mph zone - one of their fines, sent to me - I imagine their list of crimes is…extensive.kers.That’s why I thought providing them as much info as possible might incite some action.
RazerSauber said:
Would removing the fake plates from the cloned vehicle be a good idea since you know where it is? Destructively or not, at least your plate is removed.
They’ve progressed from my plates onto some more cloned ones now.Wonder if you can claim ‘ownership’ of a number plate and remove it, even from someone else’s car, if it’s on the road…?
Glassman said:
ANPR will think it's the same car, surely?
Exactly. They would have been driving their non-ULEZ exempt car on my ULEZ-exempt plates - ULEZ fraud.I’m not concerned for me, just wondering which one of their crimes the Met/TfL/borough would take most seriously. Surely ULEZ fraud is a Pretty Big Deal in some council corridors these days amongst those who think a non-ULEZ car will kill you if you so much as glance at it.
Short Grain said:
Can you find out the top copper in your area, Chief Constable or whoever. Email details of your experience, as politely as you can, asking for an immediate response!! (yeah, right), When you get more excuses back, reply with your honest anger, but copy in your local MP! They like to jump on officious officials! Had occasion to do this with an officious, jumped up little tt in my local council and he suddenly agreed with me after one email replying to him and copying our email trail to my MP 
Different type of officious tt but it may embarrass him and get a result. It will make you feel a bit better though! 
That’ll be the next stage! First, I need to challenge all three of yesterday’s parking tickets with location, pictures, plates, VIN etc. so the council has all of the details and might join everything up in a few years’ time. Joy.t in my local council and he suddenly agreed with me after one email replying to him and copying our email trail to my MP Different type of officious tt but it may embarrass him and get a result. It will make you feel a bit better though! Edited by RoVoFob on Tuesday 20th June 23:29
Edited by RoVoFob on Tuesday 20th June 23:30
B'stard Child said:
If you've got the VIN is there anyone on PH who can do a reverse search for the correct number plate for the vehicle??
The cloning may well be to avoid ULEZ and parking fines but I bet it's also to cover off the lack of MOT, Insurance, VED and anything else that might be going on in the background
I'm amazed the Police aren't taking any interest at all - it's not just the cloning activity it's the potential for other activities - OK it was a long time ago but when I was a probationary constable I would have been like a dog with a bone to have this for the experience (arrest, paperwork and court process)
Someone must be able to find out the plate with the VIN.The cloning may well be to avoid ULEZ and parking fines but I bet it's also to cover off the lack of MOT, Insurance, VED and anything else that might be going on in the background
I'm amazed the Police aren't taking any interest at all - it's not just the cloning activity it's the potential for other activities - OK it was a long time ago but when I was a probationary constable I would have been like a dog with a bone to have this for the experience (arrest, paperwork and court process)
Thought it was a ULEZ dodge, too, but the current cloned plates fitted are from another non-ULEZ diesel, so maybe not. Or they’re stupid. Absolutely, I’m 99% sure there won’t be insurance, road tax or MOT.
Not sure why the police auto-response is so, ‘Yeah, cloned plates are fine, don’t-worry-about-it’. Imagine someone will sit up and take some notice if I’ve done most of the homework for them and they can see multiple crimes stacking up.
donkmeister said:
Whilst it would be tempting to start nicking the cloners plates from time to time, any chance of asking a local police station (if such a thing still exists in your area) if they can come down and have a look? If not, what about the PCC, seeing as they love anything that makes it look like they are doing something worthwhile.
Had a look at the time and couldn’t find one but have done since. Might try that if the police don’t do anything…Ian Geary said:
I couldn't believe using false plates isn't against the law, so googled it quickly.
Loads of info about £1k fines for incorrect spacing or characters, but nothing about using a (legal) plate that isn't your vehicle's reg.
It is indeed ridiculous, the guy doing it is a scumbag, but then you think he's saving a load of cash and can obviously sleep at night...
I get the police have resource constraints, but my Facebook is full of tvp or Mercia police etc pulling car with show plates, making a big deal about how safe they're making the roads. It seems traf pol still go for low hanging fruit.
I can feel a petition coming on.Loads of info about £1k fines for incorrect spacing or characters, but nothing about using a (legal) plate that isn't your vehicle's reg.
It is indeed ridiculous, the guy doing it is a scumbag, but then you think he's saving a load of cash and can obviously sleep at night...
I get the police have resource constraints, but my Facebook is full of tvp or Mercia police etc pulling car with show plates, making a big deal about how safe they're making the roads. It seems traf pol still go for low hanging fruit.
Seems like something of a gateway crime that needs to be acted upon. I imagine having a car parked on the road with SORNed (cloned) plates or ULEZ evasion might get the police to look into this more seriously than the actual plate cloning. Hence why I’ve spelled out all the offences for the police so they can take their pick and hopefully act on one of them.
Can’t think of any legitimate reason why you’d put cloned plates on your car bar show plates on private land, which is pretty easy to distinguish from everyday cloners.
vikingaero said:
If there's a car with my registration on it, then I would probably be a tt and rip the plates off the car. After all it's "my reg"? What's the scammer going to do? "Officer that mean man, ripped his cloned plates off my car".
Did think about it, but car is already on the next set of cloned plates. If you went with a screwdriver - just in case - you can be sure you’d get charged with ‘going equipped’ for something. The law really does seem to be weighted in criminals’ favour half the time…t and rip the plates off the car. After all it's "my reg"? What's the scammer going to do? "Officer that mean man, ripped his cloned plates off my car".Mercdriver said:
Why not suggest to the police the car may not be insured? If he is driving on a cloned plate he has no need to insure it as it will show up on dvla as insured by you
Agreed. Have done that and spelled out how the police should be able to establish whether the car’s insured, taxed and MOT’d from the VIN, as well as who the registered keeper is and where they live (in theory, at least).The fact the car is now on SORNed plates might cause it more immediate problems in terms of being stopped. Here’s hoping.
Stevorocket said:
I had a one year old golf R (2018) from a vw dealer, about 2 weeks after I got it I was stopped by a marked up police car and informed that my plate was cloned, he told me that if I got any fines etc just to go to the police and explain and they would deal with them.
He also said that the cloners often drive around dealers stock taking photos to choose which plates to clone.
The next day I went to the dealership and they made up plates for my private plates and fitted them free of charge and I went online to dvla and assigned the plate to the golf.
How did they know your car was the one that had been cloned?He also said that the cloners often drive around dealers stock taking photos to choose which plates to clone.
The next day I went to the dealership and they made up plates for my private plates and fitted them free of charge and I went online to dvla and assigned the plate to the golf.
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