Cloned Plates - Marker on Car
Discussion
Cliff Notes;
- Plate cloned on car
- Stopped by police multiple times
- Textbook police stop by 6/7 cars on M20, stopping all traffic
- Hassle from police but I understand they are doing their job
Back in November my brother saw another Golf driving around locally with my wife’s number plate stuck on from her GTD. After reporting it to the police and going to the local station, turned out there is a marker on the plate/car from another force.
Not had many issues, been stopped and let go after checks done etc, the car has been between Birmingham & Brussels’s a lot as we have temporarily moved to Belgium. Driven up the M20/M25/M40 etc and not a single stop from trafffic cars until today on the M20 there was a full on operation to pull us over.
Either 6 or 7 traffic cars (marked & one unmarked) followed me for about 20 minutes (started off as the unmarked car, more followed as the miles went up). I spotted them about 500 metres back as the motorway was fairly quiet and obviously a police car as headlights were flashing and they were travelling at some speed, followed by matching my speed as soon as they were behind me.
Once I was eventually stopped and after they initially ran over etc, I realised they had even stopped all the motorway traffic! An officer at each corner of the car, with an additional one leaning into the passenger side while another standing next the open drivers window.
Quite extreme I thought but then again you never know who is driving etc, and they are doing their job.
Is there any way I can find out what the other car did?
It’s a lease car on a private plate, VW are aware of the issue and the private plate is being removed soon as I’m in the U.K. again.
A lot of hassle and not the best way to wake my 8 month old son up
The officer from the unmarked car said maybe place a sticker on the number plate to differentiate it from the other cloned car?
I have not received any speeding convictions, nothing about driving away from a petrol station etc, basically no reports of any criminal activity on the car.
Thanks for reading my long post. Just looking to see if there is anything I can do?
Hopefully the “Birmingham Basher’s” don’t pop up in here too...
- Plate cloned on car
- Stopped by police multiple times
- Textbook police stop by 6/7 cars on M20, stopping all traffic
- Hassle from police but I understand they are doing their job
Back in November my brother saw another Golf driving around locally with my wife’s number plate stuck on from her GTD. After reporting it to the police and going to the local station, turned out there is a marker on the plate/car from another force.
Not had many issues, been stopped and let go after checks done etc, the car has been between Birmingham & Brussels’s a lot as we have temporarily moved to Belgium. Driven up the M20/M25/M40 etc and not a single stop from trafffic cars until today on the M20 there was a full on operation to pull us over.
Either 6 or 7 traffic cars (marked & one unmarked) followed me for about 20 minutes (started off as the unmarked car, more followed as the miles went up). I spotted them about 500 metres back as the motorway was fairly quiet and obviously a police car as headlights were flashing and they were travelling at some speed, followed by matching my speed as soon as they were behind me.
Once I was eventually stopped and after they initially ran over etc, I realised they had even stopped all the motorway traffic! An officer at each corner of the car, with an additional one leaning into the passenger side while another standing next the open drivers window.
Quite extreme I thought but then again you never know who is driving etc, and they are doing their job.
Is there any way I can find out what the other car did?
It’s a lease car on a private plate, VW are aware of the issue and the private plate is being removed soon as I’m in the U.K. again.
A lot of hassle and not the best way to wake my 8 month old son up
The officer from the unmarked car said maybe place a sticker on the number plate to differentiate it from the other cloned car?
I have not received any speeding convictions, nothing about driving away from a petrol station etc, basically no reports of any criminal activity on the car.
Thanks for reading my long post. Just looking to see if there is anything I can do?
Hopefully the “Birmingham Basher’s” don’t pop up in here too...
Putting stickers on the plates etc to differentiate it from the clone will only be of use when offences are captured on camera and wont stop further stops by Police. What was the line of questioning by cops when you were stopped - this should give some clue as to what the clone has been up to.
Agreed, unless you really want the plate that's on it, if you get a police report and ask DVLA for a new (spare) age related number they will do it.
Or get a cheap 'cherished number' and put that on it.
It may also be worth talking to the Police about the marker, I had this and in my case the marker was on the right car, but was for a previous report (undated) of a disqualified driver using the car, once the Police accepted it was an old report and that the car had now changed hands cleanly (not to a front person) they removed the marker and no more issues.
That stop suggest weapons were suspected to be involved, I'm willing to bet those on the corners were from an ARV.
Or get a cheap 'cherished number' and put that on it.
It may also be worth talking to the Police about the marker, I had this and in my case the marker was on the right car, but was for a previous report (undated) of a disqualified driver using the car, once the Police accepted it was an old report and that the car had now changed hands cleanly (not to a front person) they removed the marker and no more issues.
That stop suggest weapons were suspected to be involved, I'm willing to bet those on the corners were from an ARV.
The plate that has been cloned is a private plate, which will be removed off the car as soon as soon as possible and the car will go back to the plate it was assigned when it was registered.
Local police are aware and sadly, I won't be told anything about the reason behind it but I can imagine it isn't a small offence to have been carried out.
One thing I forgot to ask, is what happens if the private plate is transferred to another car/put on in a year or so. Is the marker on the plate and type of car? So if it went from a Golf to say a 3 series, would the car still be pulled over? I'm thinking it won't make much difference as the plate will flag up ANPR camera's, and it would take a person to say "that's not the car we want"?
Local police are aware and sadly, I won't be told anything about the reason behind it but I can imagine it isn't a small offence to have been carried out.
One thing I forgot to ask, is what happens if the private plate is transferred to another car/put on in a year or so. Is the marker on the plate and type of car? So if it went from a Golf to say a 3 series, would the car still be pulled over? I'm thinking it won't make much difference as the plate will flag up ANPR camera's, and it would take a person to say "that's not the car we want"?
The Rookie said:
It may also be worth talking to the Police about the marker, I had this and in my case the marker was on the right car, but was for a previous report (undated) of a disqualified driver using the car, once the Police accepted it was an old report and that the car had now changed hands cleanly (not to a front person) they removed the marker and no more issues.
I had a similar issue - plate was stolen from my car before I bought it, owner reported it to the police who flagged it as "stolen" so that if it was seen it could be stopped and investigated. After getting pulled a year or so later they were happy to remove it.However based on the method of stop it would suggest that they think something much more serious is going on which would explain why they won't remove it.
Landshark said:
That’s not entirely true though.
Why? The PNC marker wont have details of any stickers the OP wishes to put on his car to alert officers that his is the 'real' car. Stickers will only be of use when comparing pics of their car and the cloned carEdited by Landshark on Monday 15th January 09:38
Bigends said:
Landshark said:
That’s not entirely true though.
Why? The PNC marker wont have details of any stickers the OP wishes to put on his car to alert officers that his is the 'real' car. Stickers will only be of use when comparing pics of their car and the cloned carEdited by Landshark on Monday 15th January 09:38
I expect the clone car is stolen and being driven around doing *whatever*. Your plate is being used to try and conceal that.
Sounds like a text book TPAC stop by the RPU. The time it took before you were stopped was to allow for getting sufficient resources in place in front and behind you just in case.
No reason for ARVs to have been involved.
The sticker idea is so that when your index next activates an ANPR camera the police can more easily identify from the picture that yours is the genuine vehicle, and therefore not bother stopping you.
Sounds like a text book TPAC stop by the RPU. The time it took before you were stopped was to allow for getting sufficient resources in place in front and behind you just in case.
No reason for ARVs to have been involved.
The sticker idea is so that when your index next activates an ANPR camera the police can more easily identify from the picture that yours is the genuine vehicle, and therefore not bother stopping you.
sutts said:
I expect the clone car is stolen and being driven around doing *whatever*. Your plate is being used to try and conceal that.
Sounds like a text book TPAC stop by the RPU. The time it took before you were stopped was to allow for getting sufficient resources in place in front and behind you just in case.
No reason for ARVs to have been involved.
The sticker idea is so that when your index next activates an ANPR camera the police can more easily identify from the picture that yours is the genuine vehicle, and therefore not bother stopping you.
When the ANPR is pinged - officers dont get a picture of the suspect car and theyll have no idea whether or not its the cloned car and will go ahead and stop it regardless of whether or not its plastered in stickers.. Sounds like a text book TPAC stop by the RPU. The time it took before you were stopped was to allow for getting sufficient resources in place in front and behind you just in case.
No reason for ARVs to have been involved.
The sticker idea is so that when your index next activates an ANPR camera the police can more easily identify from the picture that yours is the genuine vehicle, and therefore not bother stopping you.
Having some unique i.d on the genuine car will be of use if the cloned car activates a speed camera for example or is used in some crime captured on CCTV but wont stop it getting stopped until the marker is removed.
You can do the whole process of removing the private plate online via the dvla website (or is it gov.uk?) so no need to wait until you are back in the UK. You will need to get some new number plates made up (in the new reg that DVLA give you) either in belgium (presumably they can make UK plates somewhere?) or buy them online and post them to brussels.
Bigends said:
Whilst mobile and with enough detail to spot a windscreen sticker?
On a mobile device yes and although often grainy picture quality, in good conditions a distinctive sticker would be fairly obvious.There are often more obvious known differences apparent - bumper types, damage etc.
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