Intranetics Motoring News Service

Car cloning breeds sharp rise in number plate thefts

31st August 2006 | BACK     PRINT

An increasing number of drivers are falling victim to car identity theft, often unawares until "their" car is snapped by a speed camera or traffic warden.

Police forces across the company have reported a surge in number plate thefts in recent years, associated with a rise in car cloning. Licence plates are stolen from one vehicle to be fixed on another identical model, which will often have been stolen or written off by an insurance company, meaning it is likely unfit for the road.

Drivers are often unaware that their vehicle has been cloned until the other car registered to "their" name is involved in an incident, for example being snapped by a speed camera or caught parked illegally. The first clue the driver therefore receives about the crime is an unexpected fine, penalty charge notice or court summons arriving on the doormat.

Procedural changes have made it more difficult to obtain duplicate number plates legally, fuelling the increase in stolen plates. Police in East Sussex received 407 reports of stolen plates in the last year, representing a 25 per cent increase. Meanwhile, Lothian and Borders Police have already received 312 reports this year, compared to 406 in the whole of 2005 and 256 in 2004.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, Londoners appear to be most affected by the trend, with 8,998 licence plate thefts taking place during 2005-06, an increase of 32 per cent on the year before.

"There is not a day goes by without innocent people calling us and telling us about how they have become victims," said Roger Powell from website My Car Check. "Often people pay thousands for a new car only to find it has been stolen or has previously been involved in an accident before being given a false identity and put back on the road."

All vehicles are supplied with a unique Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), stamped on the chassis, which is an individual 17 digit alpha-numeric code. The only way to ensure that a car is fitted with the correct number plates is by cross referencing them with the VIN.

Any driver suspecting abnormalities with the VIN should contact the authorities. "If there is less or more than 17 characters, or if there is any suggestion the numbers have been tampered with in any way, people should be immediately suspicious," said Mr Powell.

It is estimated that there are upwards of 10,000 cloned vehicles on the streets, although the police are attempting to address this issue. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is a useful tool in identifying cloned vehicles and police in the West Midlands are among those that use ANPR to check if passing cars are cloned or not, dispatching police support if it triggers a warning on the database.

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