Today I received a ULEZ fine from Transport for London?
Somehow I had broken the rules of the ultra low emission zone. On the day when I was flying over the alps in Europe on a holiday. My scooter hasn’t been stolen as I have used it since, plus I have a ton of thick chains and trackers on it (although we already know that never stops some people, just slows them down).
My scooter registration number (number plate) had been cloned and I needed to do something about it straight away, or this could really have negative effects.
I thought it would be pretty straight forward but I realised reading around, its much more complex!
Contacting the DVLA and the police is harder than it should have been. None of them have clear paths for cloned number plates (I called the DVLA and maybe should have called the police too). Then I got a sense my insurance and all those many years of no-claims are at risk. But my insurance won’t do anything till I have a crime reference from the police.
The criminals (which they are) could be running up large amount of fines or even committing all types of other things (like robbery or who knows what) under my licence number. Most people don’t even know till the first fine comes in, which in my case is 11 days later.
After reporting it to the police, I had a look through the different number plate look up sites and found most were correct. However a couple gave clues to who had cloned my number plates.
As you can see, my Honda Silvering is not a Honda Civic and certainly not green with a 1600 cc engine! I always wanted a larger scooter but 1600 would be a huge change from 600cc.
This is bad, because of course its appearing places. However interestingly in the information which is blanked out, I can see the city location, history, etc. I won’t post it because I’m unsure how I feel about this, although with the right registration details you can look it up yourself.
Some resources for anyone who is facing the same. Starting with a BBC news page
Car cloning involves criminals stealing or copying another car’s registration plates, often choosing plates from a similar looking vehicle
The scam involves criminals using another person’s registration plates and running up fines and penalties which then land on their unsuspecting victims, who only realise there is an issue when the fines start arriving
Police say once reported, those affected can then contact the organisation that issued the fine, explain the vehicle has been cloned, that police have been informed, request cancellation and send supporting evidence if available
More practical advice and this quote shows how common it is…
Cloned number plates are very common in the UK, and the number of cases where cloned plates are involved has been increasing. Some of the factors that influenced the increase include the installation of more ANPR cameras, the expansion of London’s ULEZ area, and now more cities are introducing CRZ (Clean Air Zones).
