Cloned Vehicle
Discussion
Got a bit of an issue with my wife's car having been cloned.
I bought her a V300d as the new family car back in August, just I time to go on holiday in it. Since around December we have started to receive a string of speeding offences and other driving offences for our vehicle in the London area. We live in North Norfolk the car has only been to London once since we got it, it absolutely isn't us. Making it more difficult is that it is the same vehicle in a very similar colour so I can't even just say it clearly not our car.
I called the Met Police who issued the first fine and was advised that unfortunately there isn't anything they can do I just have to respond to all of the offences explaining what has happened. Which I have done so far getting all of them dropped. It's all pretty stressful and not much fun having to constantly have some kind of potential offence that we didn't commit hanging over us. As I'm quite worried at some point I will run out of luck with the police saying they don't buy my story and take the points/fine.
Obviously I would like to resolve the situation. Been thinking of getting a private plate put on it and not having its current one on any vehicle, but I assume as it is still registered to me the letters will still come with the added bonus of being accused of having the wrong plate on my car. It could help or possibly make things worse?
Does anyone know if it s possible to get the DVLA to completely remove the plate off the vehicle and myself so that its just completely separated from us?
Any fines etc would then just end up with the DVLA or best case scenario it flags up the offender.
I bought her a V300d as the new family car back in August, just I time to go on holiday in it. Since around December we have started to receive a string of speeding offences and other driving offences for our vehicle in the London area. We live in North Norfolk the car has only been to London once since we got it, it absolutely isn't us. Making it more difficult is that it is the same vehicle in a very similar colour so I can't even just say it clearly not our car.
I called the Met Police who issued the first fine and was advised that unfortunately there isn't anything they can do I just have to respond to all of the offences explaining what has happened. Which I have done so far getting all of them dropped. It's all pretty stressful and not much fun having to constantly have some kind of potential offence that we didn't commit hanging over us. As I'm quite worried at some point I will run out of luck with the police saying they don't buy my story and take the points/fine.
Obviously I would like to resolve the situation. Been thinking of getting a private plate put on it and not having its current one on any vehicle, but I assume as it is still registered to me the letters will still come with the added bonus of being accused of having the wrong plate on my car. It could help or possibly make things worse?
Does anyone know if it s possible to get the DVLA to completely remove the plate off the vehicle and myself so that its just completely separated from us?
Any fines etc would then just end up with the DVLA or best case scenario it flags up the offender.
ntiz said:
Got a bit of an issue with my wife's car having been cloned.
I bought her a V300d as the new family car back in August, just I time to go on holiday in it. Since around December we have started to receive a string of speeding offences and other driving offences for our vehicle in the London area. We live in North Norfolk the car has only been to London once since we got it, it absolutely isn't us. Making it more difficult is that it is the same vehicle in a very similar colour so I can't even just say it clearly not our car.
I called the Met Police who issued the first fine and was advised that unfortunately there isn't anything they can do I just have to respond to all of the offences explaining what has happened. Which I have done so far getting all of them dropped. It's all pretty stressful and not much fun having to constantly have some kind of potential offence that we didn't commit hanging over us. As I'm quite worried at some point I will run out of luck with the police saying they don't buy my story and take the points/fine.
Obviously I would like to resolve the situation. Been thinking of getting a private plate put on it and not having its current one on any vehicle, but I assume as it is still registered to me the letters will still come with the added bonus of being accused of having the wrong plate on my car. It could help or possibly make things worse?
Does anyone know if it s possible to get the DVLA to completely remove the plate off the vehicle and myself so that its just completely separated from us?
Any fines etc would then just end up with the DVLA or best case scenario it flags up the offender.
As noted, assigning a private plate to it should resolve the issue.I bought her a V300d as the new family car back in August, just I time to go on holiday in it. Since around December we have started to receive a string of speeding offences and other driving offences for our vehicle in the London area. We live in North Norfolk the car has only been to London once since we got it, it absolutely isn't us. Making it more difficult is that it is the same vehicle in a very similar colour so I can't even just say it clearly not our car.
I called the Met Police who issued the first fine and was advised that unfortunately there isn't anything they can do I just have to respond to all of the offences explaining what has happened. Which I have done so far getting all of them dropped. It's all pretty stressful and not much fun having to constantly have some kind of potential offence that we didn't commit hanging over us. As I'm quite worried at some point I will run out of luck with the police saying they don't buy my story and take the points/fine.
Obviously I would like to resolve the situation. Been thinking of getting a private plate put on it and not having its current one on any vehicle, but I assume as it is still registered to me the letters will still come with the added bonus of being accused of having the wrong plate on my car. It could help or possibly make things worse?
Does anyone know if it s possible to get the DVLA to completely remove the plate off the vehicle and myself so that its just completely separated from us?
Any fines etc would then just end up with the DVLA or best case scenario it flags up the offender.
The current number would then not be allocated to any vehicle on the road (because they are (usually, AIUI) held back for the vehicle it was originally assigned to) so Mr Criminal would get picked up for not having insurance / tax / MOT / a valid plate.
Or they would just continue driving round with impunity like most criminals seem to... but at least you wouldn't be getting letters to deal with
lolEdited by RSTurboPaul on Tuesday 22 April 14:39
Had similar few years back on my Golf GTI, basically put a marker on it with Met/surrounding police forces so it would ping on ANPR etc. it just meant I got pulled once or twice by local police. They gave me a case number and cover letter so it meant I had to email a dozen places over the course of a couple months.
I managed to get some pictures of the offending vehicle from one of the offences that came through (could see it was a lighter blue, plastic bumpers etc.) and added them to the notes on the marker and eventually the problem just went away. Presumably it was either found and stopped or they switched the plates.
It is a bit of pain but can be managed relatively easily, changing your plates has a cost, as much admin and probably gives whoever cloned the plates a completely free pass.
I managed to get some pictures of the offending vehicle from one of the offences that came through (could see it was a lighter blue, plastic bumpers etc.) and added them to the notes on the marker and eventually the problem just went away. Presumably it was either found and stopped or they switched the plates.
It is a bit of pain but can be managed relatively easily, changing your plates has a cost, as much admin and probably gives whoever cloned the plates a completely free pass.
I would just buy a private plate online, right now, and put it on the car. You can assign a plate to a car within minutes online these days.
£300 is a very small price to pay to have this kind of problem and worry solved instantly.
The other car will suddenly be running on plates that no longer exist and might eventually get pulled.
£300 is a very small price to pay to have this kind of problem and worry solved instantly.
The other car will suddenly be running on plates that no longer exist and might eventually get pulled.
It's rife in London, was on then local radio today. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jjw4l3
RSTurboPaul said:
mgv8 said:
Contact the DVLA and ask them to swap the plate. This should be done for free.
Do they put that offer in writing?!1. Put existing number on retention ("Apply to take off a number")
https://www.gov.uk/personalised-vehicle-registrati...
Cost £80, recieve V778 document.
2. Give up your right to use a private number
https://www.gov.uk/personalised-vehicle-registrati...
Submit your V778 form, receive £80 refund.
48k said:
RSTurboPaul said:
mgv8 said:
Contact the DVLA and ask them to swap the plate. This should be done for free.
Do they put that offer in writing?!1. Put existing number on retention ("Apply to take off a number")
https://www.gov.uk/personalised-vehicle-registrati...
Cost £80, recieve V778 document.
2. Give up your right to use a private number
https://www.gov.uk/personalised-vehicle-registrati...
Submit your V778 form, receive £80 refund.
It does sound more complicated than just "Contact the DVLA and ask them to swap the plate"!
This happened to me recently. I successfully challenged the multiple council issued bus lane penalty notices I had received as whilst the cloned car looked exactly like mine, the number plate font was slightly different.
I ended up going on DVLA website and paying £80 to get a new number plate assigned. DVLA were prepared to do it free but needed me to write to them with the circumstances and could take 6 weeks, so I paid the money and got a new age specific registration number issued instantly. Additional £25 for new plates to be made up, and £20 to the insurance company to update my policy.
So £125 paid yet I had done nothing wrong! it did instantly solve the problem though as I didn't get any more penalty notices.
I don't know what you'd do if you had a private plate that got cloned, as you'd want to keep the plate.
I ended up going on DVLA website and paying £80 to get a new number plate assigned. DVLA were prepared to do it free but needed me to write to them with the circumstances and could take 6 weeks, so I paid the money and got a new age specific registration number issued instantly. Additional £25 for new plates to be made up, and £20 to the insurance company to update my policy.
So £125 paid yet I had done nothing wrong! it did instantly solve the problem though as I didn't get any more penalty notices.
I don't know what you'd do if you had a private plate that got cloned, as you'd want to keep the plate.
mgv8 said:
Contact the DVLA and ask them to swap the plate. This should be done for free.
the dvla were really unhelpful when I had the same issue, i just bought a private plate, paid and did it immediately. It stopped all the stuff, couple of times a week, i was getting from lambeth council.The Gauge said:
I don't know what you'd do if you had a private plate that got cloned, as you'd want to keep the plate.
I read that is is far less likely for a criminal to clone a private plate for 3 reasons:1) The plate itself is distinctive and more memorable than a standard plate. Criminals do not want to draw any attention to themselves with a distinctive plate. There are plenty of standard plates to clone before even considering a private plate.
2) The plate itself may be physically different and harder to clone exactly (for example all my plates are 5 or 6 digit with a physically shorter plate.
3) The criminal runs the risk that the private plate may be swapped onto a new car at any time, obviously without their knowledge, so all of a sudden the car they are driving does not match the plates any more. A very obvious red flag for anyone checking the reg on ANPR/PNC.
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