Cloned number plate

[SaintHacker]

Anyone had a situation like this? Sister in law got a letter out of the blue from Surrey police saying she was being considered for prosecution for driving without due care and attention on such and such a day somewhere in Surrey. She has never even been to Surrey a day in her life so either its cloned plates or a copper who needs an eye test. Poor girl is absolutely bricking it now though that she's going to get taken to court. Whilst we can't actually prove beyond doubt she wasn't there we can certainly prove she was in Hampshire 90 mins before the alleged offence occured, and that she was parked in a council owned car park that shoudl be covered by cctv at the time of the offence. Equally they can't prove she was there, as she wasn't!
I'm going to write back to them telling them basically that, is there anything else I should add?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Presumably they will have a picture of the car with this number plate as evidence. If they have that then it will show that the car is different to her own.

If they do not have picture evidence then it is another matter and becomes more difficult.

I got caught in a bus lane, didn't realise I was, new lane, half of people in Newcastle have been caught, grrrrrr, but they had a 5 second clip of me in this lane. You could see clearly the car, number plate, my face. No dispute that it was both me and my car. Hopefully they will have similar evidence and this will clear your SiL.

Check Honest John's site from The Telegraph. I would imagine he would have something to cover this.

 

[drdel]

Give them a ring - generally these people are sensible and you'll resolve the issue quickly and without getting wound up over nowt.

 

[Midnight]

Mate,

If she thinks it's been cloned report it to Hampshire Police as well as Surrey, then you are covered both ways. Still send the letter to Surrey but to cover all angles I would let Hampshire know as well (sooner rather than later) as this will help negate any more tickets/letters that she may receive.

This is happening more and more in today's age. Our friends had a letter from GMP the other day stating the same and they have never been to Manchester.

 

[spongebob59]

I had this a few years back, I or rather my car was used in a bank job in Manchester while I was sitting an exam in Kent !

 

[SaintHacker]

Mate,

If she thinks it's been cloned report it to Hampshire Police as well as Surrey, then you are covered both ways..

Hadn't thought of that, thanks Guy

 

[bluewolf]

Happened to me about 10 years ago. They wanted to arrest me for evading arrest in Manchester. They had found the car dumped a few miles away later that night and turned up at my house to question me. What made it amusing was that they had to walk past my car in the driveway to knock on the door. And they hadn't even noticed!!

 

[Imurg]

4-5 years ago I got a speeding ticket from North Yorkshire fuzz claiming I broke the limit on an A road around Thirsk....
While I was actually sitting in Aylesbury Test Centre waiting for my car and pupil to return.
Had to take pictures of the car, provide names and addresses of those who could vouch for mine and the cars whereabouts.
Sent it all off and heard back in about 10 days that they'd dropped the ticket and were looking for then other car that had my cloned number plate on it.
All fairly painless if you can prove it wasn't you..

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Had similar with parking tickets and congestion zone charges for the van. On all 3 occasions I was able to prove mine and the vans whereabouts. Charges dropped and never heard again about them.

 

[Robster59]

So many people now post photos of their cars on social media with the number plate showing which makes it easy for people to clone the number plate. If I've ever wanted to post my car like this, I always blank out the number.

 

[jim8flog]

If you think it was a cloned number plate you should let the DVLA know and they will add a note to their records. If there are multiple problems I think they issue a new number.

I am pretty sure I saw my numbers on another car going in the opposite direction once but never had a problem, I must have misread it.

 

[MadAdey]

Whilst we can't actually prove beyond doubt she wasn't there we can certainly prove she was in Hampshire 90 mins before the alleged offence occured, and that she was parked in a council owned car park that shoudl be covered by cctv at the time of the offence. Equally they can't prove she was there, as she wasn't!

At the end of the day if I understand the law correctly all you have to prove is reasonable doubt, not beyond doubt. If she can prove that she couldn't have been at the alleged offence because she was elsewhere, then you should be good. They must have either photo evidence, or have taken down the colour and model of the car, not just the plate. You need to make sure that it matches up to her car.

Good luck!!!

 

[Vikingman]

Hows about this one.

Mate of mine was on his way to work a few years back (works about 30 miles away) and pulled up behind a similar car to his at a set of traffic lights.

He happened to glance at the number plate and got the shock of his life, it was his.

He tried to follow it but lost it, but saw it again a few days later.

This time he managed to follow it to its destination before reporting it to the police.

What are the chances of that happening?