Cloned number plate crime is on the rise

03 February 2021

The number of 'cloned numbers plates' has doubled, with 1,105 motorists reporting to the DVLA that their vehicle had been wrongly linked to offences in March 2020. We at Marshall Minibus leasing are committed to keeping you up to date with the latest motoring news and trust that you find this information useful.

Legislation dictates that licence plate manufacturers in the UK need to be registered with the DVLA, as the plates are considered as identity documents and regulated by the Government.

The British Number Plate Manufacturers Association (BNMA) says that suppliers must see original documents before they can begin production and must keep a record of each number plate they produce.

Yet, further investigation by a reporter for the Telegraph has found that many of the 40,000 licence plate retainers in the UK are “flagrantly disregarding” the law, after they were able to purchase six sets of number plates without the suppliers checking the ownership details of the vehicles. 

This flippant disregard for regulation has created a space for criminals to easily obtain false duplicate plates and use them to commit offences which are associated with another vehicle. 

The Surveillance Camera Commissioner is concerned that demand for illegal licence plates may be linked to the increasing amount of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras.

In July 2020, Bradford City footballer Ben Richards-Everton was pulled over and handcuffed by West Midlands Police because his number plate had been cloned and wrongfully linked to illegal activity.

Tony Porter, a former assistant police chief constable said, “The consequences of cloning range from a rather annoying penalty ticket landing on your doorstep for jumping a red light to more extreme cases where your vehicle has been incorrectly identified as being involved with organised criminals and triggers a fire-arms stop on a motorway.”

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