Anyone ever had their reg cloned?

[ratchart]

Just seeking some advice on behalf of my dad who's had his car registration cloned. He's reported it to the police and DVLA, but he's now getting badgered by parking companies for unpaid fines. They sent him photos of the offending vehicle which is the same model but an obviously different colour. He responded by telling the enforcement company that he's been the victim of a crime and can't be held liable for the fine but the parking company are now threatening bailiffs.

So has anyone else had experience of this and how did they deal with it?

In penance for a boring thread here's a gratuitous photo of a cool car;

[DrSebWilkes]

Why would someone clone a classic car? That makes no sense ...

"Hey Mate ... let's do a crime. YEah! In a classic car because that's obviously not conspicuous!"

[LowStandards]

Tell your Dad to ignore any invoices from the company and no longer respond

Done

They are not fines and they cannot do anything about them!

[rmad]

Write a letter to the parking company detailing the situation and send it recorded delivery...in the very unlikely event they take you to court, you'll have proof that you did everything you could to reasonably solve the issue. Get your Dad a cheap private numberplate to end the game.

[Rich]

Jul 27, 2016 10:44:30 GMT DrSebWilkes said:

Why would someone clone a classic car? That makes no sense ...

"Hey Mate ... let's do a crime. YEah! In a classic car because that's obviously not conspicuous!"

No one mentioned it was a classic, just a car.
A friend of mine had this with a hit and run iirc, maybe speeding, the giveaway was the car at the scene was purple and his is blue. But this was the police he was dealing with so one set of photos later and they were off his back.

[Indie]

Shamelessly copied from Citizens Advice: '......A parking operator has no power to recover a parking charge without first taking court action. The company may continue to send requests to pay and you can continue to ignore these unless they decide to take you to the small claims court....'

If the parking operator does take your Dad to Court he would obviously be able to defend the action.

What these private firms do not advertise is that they are not legally allowed to fine or penalise drivers for misusing private land – they can only impose a charge for potential losses or damages. If you refuse to pay, the only way they can get the money off you is to pursue you through the civil courts, showing they have 'lost' money due to your actions.

And has already been said parking firms are not allowed to send round debt collectors before a court has found in their favour.

[deanflowers]

This happened to a good mate of mine, somehow his peugeot 405 would sneak out late at night (after finding an engine, gearbox, wheels and interior) drive itself to leeds from south wales and get a parking fine.

He took photographs of his car with some form of proof of the date and sent the parking company the letter. Every time he got a fine he just sent a reply telling them to check his original letter dated XX/XX/XXXX and never had an issue or follow up letter back.

[ratchart]

Jul 27, 2016 10:44:30 GMT DrSebWilkes said:

Why would someone clone a classic car? That makes no sense ...

"Hey Mate ... let's do a crime. YEah! In a classic car because that's obviously not conspicuous!"

It's not a classic or retro car, just a normal bellybutton hatchback.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll pass on the advice to my dad. 

[DrSebWilkes]

Oh my bad. I got misread something then.

I wish him luck. As your Dad is obviously on the right side of the law, I'm sure nothing bad will happen. Good Luck!

[Rich]

Jul 27, 2016 13:12:53 GMT ratchart said:

It's not a classic or retro car, just a normal bellybutton hatchback.

I have no real idea what that means but it made me smile. best of luck getting it resolved.

[carledo]

My son in law has an Astra Turbo convertible. Its been sat in his back garden for a year or two till last December he decided to recommission it to sell it. So I fixed up a few bits and bobs and took it for an MOT, to be told that "this car already has an MOT till next July"
So someone is obviously out there driving a clone of his car about! I did my civic duty and reported it to the local plod but have heard nothing since.

Steve

[foldy]

Jul 27, 2016 18:56:49 GMT Rich said:

Jul 27, 2016 13:12:53 GMT ratchart said:

It's not a classic or retro car, just a normal bellybutton hatchback.

I have no real idea what that means but it made me smile. best of luck getting it resolved.

Made me smile too
I presume it's an 'everyone has one and they're much all the same' kind of thing. Far less course than the usual derogatory comment implying similar!

[hkr91]

A salvage motorbike we bought had it's plates cloned, the offending vehicle was then parked illegally, sped though several cameras (we had driving licence points totally 42 iirc) and driving down one way roads constantly. The offending bike was a black Yamaha r1/r6 with a side exhaust exhaust, my bike was at the time still accident damaged and was a silver non faired twin under seat exhaust bike.

I had Camden and islington council come to my house, had several talks with my local police station (I can't remember whether I had a crime reference number) and was in talks with DVLA.

Dvla offered to change my reg but I wanted to keep it (even though it was an 05 plate) and the police eventually took charge to sort it out. I was told after the incident (about 4 months later) that the offending bike had been seized and crushed but whether that was true I will never know.

[mrabody]

Jul 27, 2016 10:40:52 GMT ratchart said:

Just seeking some advice on behalf of my dad who's had his car registration cloned. He's reported it to the police and DVLA, but he's now getting badgered by parking companies for unpaid fines. They sent him photos of the offending vehicle which is the same model but an obviously different colour. He responded by telling the enforcement company that he's been the victim of a crime and can't be held liable for the fine but the parking company are now threatening bailiffs.

So has anyone else had experience of this and how did they deal with it?

In penance for a boring thread here's a gratuitous photo of a cool car;

You can ignore the parking company's threat of bailiffs. They'd have to take him to court first and get a judgement. In fact their system of sending out letters is probably mostly automated so every time the car with the cloned plates is parked in their car park, they'll send out a new letter. My advice is to reply stating the facts of the case every time he receives correspondence relating to a new parting infraction so that they should have a letter on the file stating the facts. After that there's no further point in responding.

[ChasR]

Jul 27, 2016 10:44:30 GMT DrSebWilkes said:

Why would someone clone a classic car? That makes no sense ...

"Hey Mate ... let's do a crime. YEah! In a classic car because that's obviously not conspicuous!"

If it saves paying tax...

Jul 27, 2016 13:12:53 GMT ratchart said:

Jul 27, 2016 10:44:30 GMT DrSebWilkes said:

Why would someone clone a classic car? That makes no sense ...

"Hey Mate ... let's do a crime. YEah! In a classic car because that's obviously not conspicuous!"

It's not a classic or retro car, just a normal bellybutton hatchback.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll pass on the advice to my dad. 

If nothing else, it's not your insurance they are paying, or road tax. That and it is a crafty way to get out of paying parking fines, or worse still commit a robbery etc.

[Stu]

This happened to me and my brother in law, both around the time we put vehicles on auto trader so clearly the reg plates get picked up from there. In my case, I got a load of letters with pics of a very similar VW van to mine towing caravans up and down the country, parking illegally overnight in places and not paying, going into the London congestion zone and all sorts. I reported it to Police, got a case reference and sent that info back to each place that demanded I pay a fine. Died down after a while. Tricky swines these cloners, aren't they!

[dodgerover]

Jul 28, 2016 8:12:24 GMT hkr91 said:

Dvla offered to change my reg but I wanted to keep it (even though it was an 05 plate) and the police eventually took charge to sort it out. I was told after the incident (about 4 months later) that the offending bike had been seized and crushed but whether that was true I will never know.

From experience quite a few years ago it is Possibly true they've been known to do some distressing things to bikes run on fake plates, I know of one breaker who tried for ages (and offered top money) to get access to remove parts before fragging but was refused - I don't even think they were depolluted...

Sad thing is it was probably someone's pride and joy that they had had stolen.

I don't think identifying the original identity was ever a priority unless it was involved in a major crime, used to see loads of break only bikes that supposedly couldn't be identified with numbers visible.

[MrSpeedy]

I had one cloned some years ago, before the days of private parking companies.

Had a car a sold to a scrap yard and I know it was fragged. (Owner of yard was a family friend)

9 months later I had a parking ticket from Sheffield city council (I lived in Leicestershire at the time)

I simply wrote to Doovla explaining the situation and heard no more about it

[soretro]

www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/r100k-gone-in-six-seconds-20160727



These armed robbers cloned a reg plate off another BMW same colour same model police realised it was cloned as the vehicle used in the robbery had a sunroof where the original car doesn't

[robdhc]

Happened to me when I bought a car off eBay. Its a pain in the backside, one of the reasons I sold the car in the end (was a cheap daily mind)

The cloned car was in Northern Ireland, quite a distance from me which helped. Fortunately (?) for me it was involved in a hit and run which in turn opened up a crime reference number. They quickly realised it wasn't me so another crime reference number was opened.

I kept getting tickets, but simply put in a representation quoting the crime reference number and referring the claim to the police. As I say, a pain but better than it could be.

In summary I'd suggest reporting the crime to the police and asking for a reference number. Then keep batting that back over the parking companies.

Hope this helps