Car cloning: innocent UK motorists get fines as scams accelerate (2024)

On Wednesday, Bouchaib Moussaid’s £8,000 Kia Sportage car was all set to be sold at auction by bailiffs. The care worker, who lives in St Albans in Hertfordshire, and his extended family have spent the last few weeks trying to stop the sale.

Moussaid is one of a growing number of people who have had their car cloned.

Unknown to him, someone had been using copies of his car’s registration plates and had driven in London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) 12 times, resulting in him being sent a series of penalty fines.

Despite Moussaid repeatedly telling Transport for London (TfL) that it was not him at the wheel, agents working for TfL seized his car in January.

Car cloning could be one of the UK’s fastest-growing crimes but it is barely acknowledged or recorded. If it happens to you, it can be a nightmare to resolve – one that will consume your life, as a host of unpaid speeding, parking and other fines start landing on your doorstep.

Motoring experts say that the big jump in the cost of car ownership over the last year or two is in part to blame.

Unscrupulous drivers facing £2,000-a-year car insurance costs and £12.50 a day to drive in London’s Ulez – or those using stolen cars – are choosing to clone another owner’s number plates. Usually they pick a vehicle that is the same model and colour.

Once the plates are attached to their vehicle, they are able to drive around as an apparently legitimate driver.

Moussaid has never driven his car in London, so was bemused when Ulez penalty charges started dropping through his letterbox last year. Only when he looked at the grainy black and white images of “his” car being driven in the zone did he realise that it wasn’t his vehicle.

The car caught by the cameras didn’t have the Eco badge that his had, the number plates looked different, and there were other small differences to the bodywork that made him certain it wasn’t his vehicle. At the time of the alleged offences, his car was actually off the road, and registered as such with DVLA.

Car cloning: innocent UK motorists get fines as scams accelerate (1)

“We have provided a witness statement from his neighbour that it couldn’t be him and shown TfL that his attended care worker shifts in St Albans coincided with the time and date of the offences,” says Lauren Hine, Moussaid’s sister-in-law and one of those trying to help him save the car.

“We have provided evidence that the car was declared off the road when the offences were committed, and shown the physical differences between the vehicles.”

She adds: “Herts and Met police forces are aware his car was cloned and are searching for the culprit using the camera system, but TfL just won’t listen and are selling his car. How can this ludicrous situation even happen?”

Only because of the Guardian’s intervention this week were Moussaid and his car finally reunited on Tuesday, leaving the care worker in tears. All of the fines have now been dropped. It just happened to be his birthday.

A TfL spokesperson said: “We are sorry that Mr Moussaid has been a victim of vehicle cloning and apologise for any distress the handling of his case has caused him and his family. Although the evidence which confirmed the vehicle wasn’t registered to him was submitted after the statutory deadline, we should have cancelled all TfL PCNs related to the cloned number plate and stopped the enforcement process – which has now happened. We have also returned Mr Moussaid’s vehicle to him.”

Late last year, the Guardian was contacted by another driver who had fallen victim to car cloning. The 88-year-old’s insurance doubled at renewal to £1,259 and she was told this was because her Ford Fiesta had been involved in an accident on the M25.

Despite her pointing out that she had not driven on the M25 for more than a decade, and that she had been either at church or at home at the time of the accident – and the fact that she had reported that her car had been cloned to Hertfordshire police – her insurer, Zurich, refused to take the claim off her file. Only after the Guardian intervened did the firm restore her no-claims bonus and reduce her premium accordingly.

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For Simon Oliver, who lives in north London, this all sounds horribly familiar. He has twice been targeted by car-cloning criminals.

The most recent incident happened in July 2021, when he received two penalty charge notices from different London councils – one for driving in a bus lane and the other for an illegal left turn. Both notices included photos purporting to show his five-door Audi A3 car.

Despite him providing extensive evidence that at the time of one of the offences his vehicle was in a car park, and demonstrating that the one in the photo appeared to be a three-door Audi A1, the council concerned rejected his appeal.

Only when he sent in photos of his vehicle type and the one in the CCTV image where he had “circled all the differences” was the matter dropped.

A few years earlier, when he owned a Ford Ka, Oliver received a flurry of penalty notices from different bodies, including speeding fines, parking tickets and congestion charge fines relating to various parts of London – including some areas he had never been to.

Oliver worked for a government department at the time and had a “massive stroke of luck” when Suffolk constabulary agreed to write a letter backing up his assertion that, at the time that one of the offences was committed, he was visiting the police HQ in Ipswich for work and his car was parked there all day.

Nevertheless, he still had to go to a tribunal to make his case to an adjudicator. “I probably had a couple of inches of paperwork … [The adjudicator] acknowledged very quickly that I had the necessary evidence, and he agreed that all these fines would be overturned.”

Paul Barker, the managing editor at the sales website Carwow, says the number of cloned cars on the UK’s roads is “unfortunately increasing”.

“It is becoming a real worry for those caught up in it and can have severe consequences for both buyers and legitimate vehicle owners,” he says. “For buyers, there is the risk of the financial loss and legal complications that come with inadvertently purchasing a cloned car (which may be stolen) and potentially subject to repossession.”

Barker says the latest data from TfL shows that more than 12,762 Ulez charges were cancelled because of cars being cloned in 2022. This was up from 2,779 in 2021 and 1,298 in 2020, but the zone was expanded in October 2021, so the numbers are not comparable.

None of the agencies we approached for figures were able to provide us with data.

Barker says if you find out your car has fallen victim to a cloning fraudster, it’s vital to act quickly and alert the authorities – ie the police – before further crimes are committed. “Not only will it save you having to appeal against any future tickets, but it will hopefully help the police snare the criminals, as a cloned vehicle will be flagged on nationwide [ANPR] cameras as one to look out for,” he says.

“We would also encourage clone victims to collect as much evidence as possible, digital or testimony, about your whereabouts, to support appeals against unfortunate motoring fines or traffic violations that your car’s doppelganger has accrued.”

Edmund King, the AA’s president, says the growth of camera enforcement – from speeding and parking to bus lanes and yellow box junctions and from the congestion charge to low-emission zones – means that for those wanting to stay outside the law, cloning a car is their “easiest option”.

He says: “One solution we advocate is to have more traffic police or ‘cops in cars and on cycles’ on the streets, as often they are able to spot the ringers. Evidence from the Home Office suggests the most serious motoring offenders are much more likely to be involved in other crimes.”

‘I was told I’d done 88mph in a 40mph zone’

It was a bright spring day when trouble landed on my front doormat: a letter from National Parking Control “inviting” me to pay a parking fine complete with a picture of my car parked in a part of Greenwich that I’d never heard of let alone driven to.

My first instinct was to run out into the street to check that my car was still there. It was, but all was not as it seemed.

Someone had clocked my number plate, had a duplicate printed and was now running around south-east London masquerading as me.

The first parking ticket was quickly followed by several more at £100 a time as the cloned car made its way around Greenwich. My first job was to challenge the penalties. Thankfully, the clone, while the same make, model and colour as mine, was missing a few bits of trim, allowing me to prove that the car was not mine with photos. After a few back and forths, NPC cancelled the tickets.

Next I logged the crime with the Met police, who put a marker on my number plate that would trigger a stop should any passing officers or cameras spot the car in the next four months. I was issued with a CAD (computer-aided dispatch) reference and warned to carry it, the car’s V5 logbook and ID while driving as I was just as likely to be stopped as the criminals, though I was informed by an officer that it was likely the criminals would ditch the cloned plates before they could be caught.

The cloning also needed reporting to the DVLA, which required a signed cover letter to be sent, via post no less, to put a separate mark on the registration number’s central record.

I thought that would be the end of it but a few days later a scary-looking notice of intended prosecution arrived from the Met informing me that my vehicle had blown through a speed camera doing 88mph in a 40mph zone. They might have been trying to go Back to the Future but I was facing an instant ban.

Despite reporting the cloning, the burden lay on me to contest each penalty as it came in. It wasn’t obvious from the intimidating form what to do for a cloned vehicle, but for a speeding ticket of this magnitude you have 28 days to reply via post with the form, printed photos showing discrepancies and a signed statement.

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I followed up with a phone call 15 days later to be told to expect another letter requesting more information, which arrived on the mat six days later. Another photoshoot required, this time of the front, back, sides, closeups of both number plates, plus the VIN in the windscreen and V5 logbook. This time at least the photos could be emailed to the investigations team.

Fifteen days later a letter arrived from the investigating officer to inform me that the offending vehicle had been caught by police and impounded, likely putting an end to my three-month saga. I was so relieved.

So what I have I learned? While there is little you can do to stop your vehicle being cloned, there are some precautions you can take to help you if it does happen. Having a distinctive plate design with an emblem such as a country flag at one end, a border or a plate surround will help you prove the vehicle isn’t yours from closeup images of the plate. Equally a distinctive sticker low down on the front and rear windshields will help add unique elements to help contest tickets in photographic evidence. Dash or security camera footage or GPS logs can also be used to prove your location at the time of the offence. Samuel Gibbs

Car cloning: innocent UK motorists get fines as scams accelerate (2024)

FAQs

How many cars are cloned in the UK? ›

DVLA private number plate seller Platehunter found that their data indicates that 4,021 complaints of vehicle cloning were made in 2018 and 9,384 in 2019. Platehunter, a seller of DVLA private number plates, has released data surrounding the growing issue of vehicle cloning in the UK.

What do police see when they run your plates in the UK? ›

By using ANPR, also known as 'Automatic Number Plate Recording' the police are able to see the details of your number plate amongst the national database. From this, the police can see… If the number plate is registered to the vehicle they see in front of them. Tax and MOT status.

What is a clone car? ›

A cloned vehicle is a vehicle that has had its identifying features changed to hide its identity.

How do I report a car with false number plates in the UK? ›

Here's what a UK motorist should do in such a situation: Contact the Police: Report the suspected number plate cloning to your local police station or via the 101 non-emergency hotline.

How to tell if a car is a clone? ›

How do you check if a car is a clone?
  1. Ask to see the V5C - Check that the car's V5C logbook has a DVL watermark by holding it up to the light.
  2. Check the engine number and Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) - They need to match the ones that are listed in the logbook.
Jul 24, 2023

What happens if I buy a cloned vehicle? ›

If you buy a “cloned” vehicle, it is never really yours. If and when the VIN-switch is discovered, the car you paid for will be confiscated and returned to the original owner or the insurance company if a theft claim has already been paid.

Why do cops follow you but not pull? ›

Instead, the general rule is that police are allowed to follow you for a reasonable distance to observe your driving and determine if a traffic stop needs to be conducted. As you might imagine, a reasonable distance is interpretative and will vary based on the specifics of the situation.

Can you refuse to exit your vehicle in the UK? ›

Your rights during a vehicle stop

There is no legal obligation on drivers to step outside of their vehicle, to turn off their vehicle, or provide any documents other than those specified above (under the heading 'What is a vehicle stop? '), including under the threat of arrest.

How can the police prove I was on my phone in the UK? ›

The police can obtain a warrant to request your call records from your mobile phone service provider. These records will contain who you called and on what date and time, but not the contents of the calls. In exceptional cases, law enforcement may be able to obtain a warrant to 'tap' your phone line.

What is a ghost car? ›

The task force is dedicated to identifying and removing so-called "ghost cars" -- which are cars that are untraceable by traffic cameras and toll readers due to forged or altered license plates. The main goal is to remove cars with fake or modified license plates and those with no tags at all.

What are clones scamming? ›

Clone phishers aim to create believable messages from brands and people you know. Phishers replace safe links and attachments from emails that look real with malware and fake domains designed to steal your credentials. For example, a clone phishing scam might include red flags like: Suspicious links and attachments.

What is a smurf car? ›

elf like creature with a mushroom head and a cat's face. who looks a bit like a Smurf. The creature is usually labeled shilu shy. in Russian text, which is basically a nonsense word in Russian, but similar to the word chalapai, which roughly translates to something like scamp. or little scoundrel.

What is the penalty for illegal number plates in the UK? ›

It could contain the wrong spacings, font, colours, style, material, and so on. So, how much is the fine for illegal number plate? If your vehicle is displaying illegal or incorrectly displayed number plates, you could be fined up to £1,000 and your vehicle will fail its MOT test.

Is it illegal to drive with broken number plate UK? ›

If your front or rear number plates are missing or damaged, you must replace them. Driving without clear number plates is an offence and could pick up penalty points on your license as well as a fine.

Do we eat cloned meat in the UK? ›

The FSA said it had traced two bulls born in the UK from embryos harvested from a cloned cow in the US. "Both of these bulls have been slaughtered. The first, Dundee Paratrooper, was born in December 2006 and was slaughtered in July 2009. Meat from this animal entered the food chain and will have been eaten.

How many unregistered cars are there in the UK? ›

Statistics published by the Department for Transport shows an estimated 719,000 vehicles are being used despite their vehicle excise duty (VED) not being paid. This represents 1.8% of vehicles, up from 1.6% in 2019 when the total was 634,000.

What percentage of stolen cars are recovered UK? ›

Of the 101,198 vehicles stolen across the two nations in 2021, only around 28 per cent were recovered, according to an analysis of Home Office figures by Claims Management and Adjusting, with insurers paying out an estimated £1.44 billion.

How many cars are stolen a day in England? ›

That equates to 176 cars stolen every day, or one car stolen every eight minutes and 12 seconds, from somewhere in the UK last year. The top 10 comprises a mix of prestige models and some of the UK's best sellers, including the Fiesta.

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