We've Been Cloned - and now fines are stacking up.....

[Fiona/Trevor]

I'm back on here after a long absence because some total scumbag has cloned our Merc and now there's a lookalike driving around London and Hertfordshire, pretending to be us, driving through congestion zones and filling up at fuel stations and driving off without paying - and who gets all the fines and threatening letters? Us!

We are six hundred miles away and have never visited either place, and we can also prove we weren't there, but I'm getting pretty stressed out about it and it's taking a lot of time writing letters and gathering evidence. It's not going to stop unless this person is caught, and police just aren't interested.... and how on earth did they spot us? Well, perhaps I shouldn't have put a photo of the car on here.... my Facebook is private but I have a picture here and I think one of the Caravan Club forum as well. I'm going to edit out all my future registrations on photos.

Has anyone else ever experienced this? Any advice?

Cheers

Fiona

 

[Gazwould]

Always blank out the reg .

 

[Blobcat]

Not had a problem and you can see number plates just by walking around so don’t see the point in hiding them.

In your case I’d be tempted to buy a cheap personal plate and fit that. You won’t get anymore fines from the clone and they’ll then trigger ANPR cameras as an unregistered vehicle.

 

[Fiona/Trevor]

Not had a problem and you can see number plates just by walking around so don’t see the point in hiding them.

In your case I’d be tempted to buy a cheap personal plate and fit that. You won’t get anymore fines from the clone and they’ll then trigger ANPR cameras as an unregistered vehicle.

Yes that's been suggested. And indeed, should we really have to hide our reg... this may have been someone we passed on the motorway a year ago, back when we could travel.... been as close as Oxford in the past.... but I've just blanked it out anyway! Too late this time I know!

 

[A.J.]

Always blank out the reg .

Don’t see the point in that. All they have to do is spot your car in the street and if they walk up to it they have the VIN number as well

 

[bembo449]

I assume the rozzers are involved by now ?

 

[Fiona/Trevor]

I assume the rozzers are involved by now ?

Scottish ones not interested, advised by an ex police friend that the Met won't do a thing about it either. Sigh. Going to try the Hertfordshire ones re: the latest fuel theft, as that's outside the Met and they may chase it if there's CCTV. £115 of diesel.... either it was very expensive diesel or they also filled up a few cans! We can't get more than £80 in!

 

[Gazwould]

Don’t see the point in that. All they have to do is spot your car in the street and if they walk up to it they have the VIN number as well

Plates aren't cloned and used locally it's always some distance apart and in the OP's case some 600 miles away .

 

[sonic]

Check they have put a marker on PNC to say these plates are cloned. I am ex job & we used to get a few of these. If they have you should get stopped a few times.
I would ask for a meeting with your local police commander, & ask exactly what have they done about this. If you are unsatisfied then contact your MP. Sadly you have to been very forceful to get things done.
You could buy a cheap set of registration plates, that would stop it.

 

[robin.large]

Go back to your local police and be insistent. Although the crime may be in a different jurisdiction it is fraud / crime against you - in Scotland.
Change plates to a cheap set of private plates. You can do that in a couple of days. Easy fix.

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[KillerHERTZ]

Don’t see the point in that. All they have to do is spot your car in the street and if they walk up to it they have the VIN number as well

So you have spotted a car you want to nick, eg a Black VW Golf R, you can do the following:

1) Search around your town for hours/days/weeks for another Black VW Golf R and make a note of the plate and clone it.
2) Visit a Golf R forum and view the gallery section for a user with a black Golf R and clone the plate, would take less than 10mins

 

[KennyN]

So you have spotted a car you want to nick, eg a Black VW Golf R, you can do the following:

1) Search around your town for hours/days/weeks for another Black VW Golf R and make a note of the plate and clone it.
2) Visit a Golf R forum and view the gallery section for a user with a black Golf R and clone the plate, would take less than 10mins

A few owners forums won`t allow you to browse the gallery until you have signed up.

Easiest option is just look on any approved used car website , numerous plates are there for all to see.

K

 

[LostKiwi]

A few owners forums won`t allow you to browse the gallery until you have signed up.

Easiest option is just look on any approved used car website , numerous plates are there for all to see.

K

Or Autotrader etc....

 

[ajlsl600]

Christ, another fraud that will take hrs, months to deal with. And all at your cost. I have an old fashioned way of dealing with such matters, even tho it can take some time for such lovely characters to surface.
I would think that now this is reported the plate, car would flag up on our so called protectors systems and the car would get stopped.
Also suspect same lovely characters have by now dumped yr plate, and found another plate,/victim
I think only way out is change the burden of proof. Authorities must Prove you were there..... nu plate insufficient.
Sorry to read this.

 

[Hotspur]

Whilst we are in lockdown and unless you desperately need your car right now (assuming you may have access to another) then SORN it for a few months...they will soon get stopped by the ANPR cops and hopefully if the cops are wise enough will realise it's not the genuine car with that plate and cuff 'em.

 

[davemercedes]

"Sorry" doesn't help very much but like the others above, I'm sorry you're going through this. I had similar with ID theft a few years back and it's very disheartening that the support is almost non-existent. On a couple of occasions I had to insist the boys in blue raised a crime record so I could put notes about my ID being cloned on my credit records.

 

[DSK]

I can’t believe the police are not interested. I thought it was a simple case of them putting a marker against the reg then catching the culprit as it goes through the anpr cameras.


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[Wighty]

I can’t believe the police are not interested. I thought it was a simple case of them putting a marker against the reg then catching the culprit as it goes through the anpr cameras.


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They should update PNC as you say , because the vehicle is of course uninsured and untaxed

 

[davemercedes]

Not only the police but in my case one of the Building Societes... seemed so thick I nearly exploded! First they wrote to me saying they'd had a requst to grant a loan on my account - and they confirmed that they had refused (thank goodness) then when I gave them all the ID theft info they refused to remove it from my personal record because they said it "had actually happened". Five emails and two registered letters to update my credit records (Experian etc) and they finally woke up to the fact that I was the injured party! Then, when I called the police and asked them to deal with it, the woman I spoke to said in a rather surly tone: "What do you expect us to do about it?" and I said: I want you record and give me a crime report number because a crime has been commited - at which point the line simply went dead and (thankfully) I was transferred to a human bean - a "real" Police Sergeant who knew exactly where I was coming from etc. So I was able to get and put the crime number on my credit record and add a password to be quoted if I ever wanted to arrange a loan.

There was quite a bit of stress to accompany this - thankfully I was at a time of life where I didn't need to borrow money etc - but I might easily have been up that nasty creek without a paddle!

 

[Ron240]

I have the utmost sympathy for anyone in this type of situation and the perpetrators are scum of the highest order, but Ive always wondered what happens if you simply ignore everything that comes through the post...because you are completely innocent after all?
The law of the land is innocent until proven guilty.