Cloned Plate - PCN

[Boleros]

Received an invoice today for parking in E16 on morning of 2 Sep at 0523 which is kind of interesting as the car was most definitely parked in Calais at that time prior to hoofing it down to Italy. Photographic evidence does indeed show the same(ish) car with the same plate although it looks more bluey than grey and their interior seats are black whereas mine are almond.

Anyway, it's obviously been cloned and I have an option to appeal on the website but just though I'd ask here first in case anyone has been in a similar situation.

Thanks all.

[Andy665]

Yep, number of months ago. Contacted them, explained situation and both fines were quashed without issue.

Probably easier for me as although the make was tge same (Alfa), our car was a Giulietta whilst the car with cloned plate was a Guilia

I did contact the police and advise them of the existence of the cloned plate. They were extremely helpful and confirmed that every force in the UK would have it flagged on their systems

Edited by Andy665 on Saturday 14th October 08:52

[Doyliestag]

It happened to me when someone cloned a 7-series BMW that I had in stock at a showroom that I owned at the time. I had used the vehicle on a few occasions so the police could see evidence of both cars being used on the public highway. They could see that one car was fitted with my branded number plates and the other wasn’t. My car was a silver 728i and the other a grey 740i and I found the police to be very helpful in my dealings with them. They could differentiate between my car and the imposter which meant I wasn’t liable for any offences committed. They confirmed that the vehicle was being used as a pool car by some low level criminals.

[Boleros]

Ok, thanks chaps. I'll just go ahead and appeal it on their website, I have all the evidence I need so shouldn't be too much of an issue. He says.

[Krikkit]

Boleros said:

Ok, thanks chaps. I'll just go ahead and appeal it on their website, I have all the evidence I need so shouldn't be too much of an issue. He says.

If you get really stuck get a crime number from the police and send that in, they tend to be reasonable once they see some authority.

[Boleros]

Krikkit said:

Boleros said:

Ok, thanks chaps. I'll just go ahead and appeal it on their website, I have all the evidence I need so shouldn't be too much of an issue. He says.

If you get really stuck get a crime number from the police and send that in, they tend to be reasonable once they see some authority.

Ok, thanks.

[Tommo87]

Sticking something like this on will solve your problem in the short term.

[ChasW]

This happened to me with a DartfordTunnel fine. The number plates were different as the cloned car did not have the EU symbol. Dart Charge folk were really helpful. Police played ping pong between Kent, where the offence was committed, and Thames Valley where the car is registered.

[Vantagemech..]

While I had an advert on Autotrader, I got 2 separate fines drop through the door.
Each from different boroughs in London, both violations where a camera caught the car. Whoever made the fake plates took the effort to put a roof rack on the car, but failed to notice I had plain plates not UK marked ones.
Event though the images were clearly of a different vehicle (wheels, bike rack, etc) it still took 2 months of back and forth sending images to get the fines quashed. Annoying as I lost a sale as I couldn't really pass the car on with cloned fines arriving.

[Boleros]

Checked the photo evidence again and the cloned car has clean plates whereas mine has the UK identifier, good. More evidence hopefully. I’ve also reported it online to my local force so hopefully that will add more weight.

[plfrench]

I had this happen to me a few years back. Unfortunately for the cloner, they chose the most unreliable car I’d ever had A 2014 A3 2.0tdi which was off the road pretty much permanently living at Audi Derby from late 15 till it went back at 3 years old (company car).

Had London congestion charge camera fine come through and just got the dealer to confirm that it was with them, all good.

[Boleros]

Appeal submitted, let's see how it goes.

[the-norseman]

Its so easy to do this these days, go on ebay etc find a car the same as yours and use the reg. But then people who blur their number plates get mocked for doing it.

[Boleros]

Aye, I used to be one of those sceptical types over the blurring of plates but now that it's happened to me I have a differently view, not surprisingly. Lesson learned and all that although I'm mildly curious to know how they got my VRN as it hasn't been up for sale.

[the-norseman]

Boleros said:

Aye, I used to be one of those sceptical types over the blurring of plates but now that it's happened to me I have a differently view, not surprisingly. Lesson learned and all that although I'm mildly curious to know how they got my VRN as it hasn't been up for sale.

You might be one of the unlucky ones that has physically cloned IE they have seen your car parked up somewhere.

But for example, one of my old cars was quite rare (yellow 2010 Leon Cupra R) the chances of seeing on out and about is quite slim so its easier to go on Facebook/Instagram/eBay and grab a plate if you wanted to clone one.

[Boleros]

the-norseman said:

You might be one of the unlucky ones that has physically cloned IE they have seen your car parked up somewhere.

That's what I was thinking, hopefully this doesn't turn out to be too much of a pain in the rear.

[Boleros]

This is going to be fun, just received another PCN for parking in Catford. What a pain in the arse.