Glad it was sorted in the end. The timescale is probably down to budget cuts. They could also do with a review of the content of their letter(s), by the sound of things.

There conclusion was that there is probably another identical car with my reg plate on. They don't think it is maliciously cloned, but probably duplicated by mistake. Whilst this sounds unlikely, they reckon they see this regularly, especially with large lease companies or fleets. It may even have the correct one on the front and mine on the back!

 

 

Sounds like a cop-out to me (no pun intended). Is blue Golf with silver wing-mirrors a particularly common combination? The odds of the plate being "accidently" made and put on an identical car must be very long indeed. When you watch Halfords make up plates, they punch in the reg, print on yellow, then print on white. To make up a single plate wrongly would be hard - you'd need to make a pair. To have different plates front and back would be very hard. A "common occurance" it would not be.

 

Sounds like the usual "we can't be bothered as it's not a recordable crime (no target to meet) - tough luck if it happens again" attitude.

Sounds like a cop-out to me (no pun intended). Is blue Golf with silver wing-mirrors a particularly common combination? The odds of the plate being "accidently" made and put on an identical car must be very long indeed. When you watch Halfords make up plates, they punch in the reg, print on yellow, then print on white. To make up a single plate wrongly would be hard - you'd need to make a pair. To have different plates front and back would be very hard. A "common occurance" it would not be.

 

Sounds like the usual "we can't be bothered as it's not a recordable crime (no target to meet) - tough luck if it happens again" attitude.

 

I've registered 250 cars at a time requiring large batch orders for plates and then fitting them against vin/registration documents cross referencing.'ve seen the wrong plates go on the wrong identical car, but caught in a final correspondence check. If plate companies send out an extra plate of the wrong reg, it's not impossible for someone to mess it up. Dozens of identical cars with vin numbers practically identical and registrations more or less sequentially issued having come off the line and batch registered at same time etc. If other car was from same leasing firm and date of first registration was the same date or within 24 hours either side, it would be plausible. If not then I'd lean heavily towards the clone side. For a non lease vehicle / company bulk acquisition, I'd always fear cloned. Does DVLA allow change of registration plate for another age related following such reports for the correct keepers protection?   

I've registered 250 cars at a time requiring large batch orders for plates and then fitting them against vin/registration documents cross referencing.'ve seen the wrong plates go on the wrong identical car, but caught in a final correspondence check. If plate companies send out an extra plate of the wrong reg, it's not impossible for someone to mess it up. Dozens of identical cars with vin numbers practically identical and registrations more or less sequentially issued having come off the line and batch registered at same time etc. If other car was from same leasing firm and date of first registration was the same date or within 24 hours either side, it would be plausible. If not then I'd lean heavily towards the clone side. For a non lease vehicle / company bulk acquisition, I'd always fear cloned. Does DVLA allow change of registration plate for another age related following such reports for the correct keepers protection?   

 

 

Ah, I wholly see where you come from with this, with a small "but".......plates are usually made in pairs, someone somewhere will have made either 1 less or 1 more plate than is required. That's what I'm getting at. So, in theory, if someone else has got Pooch's plate, he should also have one of someone else's, and there should be a whole lot of cars with mis-matched plates, and there would be a plate left-over or a plate short in that batch (alarm bells should then ring in someone's head.)

 

I beleive that the DVLA can issue a new registration for a vehicle that has been cloned. Then the one that is then still "out there" should be marked as stop if seen.

It happens with plates at dealers quite a bit. Peugeot dealer I once worked for sold a car, the tech put the wrong plate on the back, wasn't picked up for 12 months. Ford dealer I worked at had a fiesta delivered from the factory, RH side was specced as an LX, LH side was a ghia, even down to the badges and wheels etc.

Glad it's finally sorted though.

Ah, I wholly see where you come from with this, with a small "but".......plates are usually made in pairs, someone somewhere will have made either 1 less or 1 more plate than is required. That's what I'm getting at. So, in theory, if someone else has got Pooch's plate, he should also have one of someone else's, and there should be a whole lot of cars with mis-matched plates, and there would be a plate left-over or a plate short in that batch (alarm bells should then ring in someone's head.)

 

I beleive that the DVLA can issue a new registration for a vehicle that has been cloned. Then the one that is then still "out there" should be marked as stop if seen.

 

Our caught errors were complete wrong registration plated fitted between 2 vehicles (needing swapped around). But the difference in that sort of environment compared to someone in Halfords just making a single pair of plates is constant production plate after plate after plate. Break time stops dead goes back and repeats last registration etc, then QC failures for whatever reason being redone and originals not destroyed (automated process ones). Hence only something I'd consider plausible if both vehicles came from the same place at the same time. Otherwise it's wildly speculative and more like clone territory. For some of our vehicles randomly used to come with 2 sets of plates (with and without EU ident), was something do do with 2 companies within the procurement process both being contracted to supply them. Then some vehicles had more than one registration authorised to be used on the vehicle at same time. Last lease change over I had was in 2013 and having gone to massive lengths to recall all vehicles and prepared for handover (a lot of paperwork, inspections, cleaning and plates removed), the fleet of transporters came 24 hours late and same lease company didn't have them taking old ones away instead leaving empty. 2 weeks before they got lifted causing parking mayhem. New fleet was mainly Fords.... and all came with the normal bits in boot, entire fleet came with the wrong floor mats with Volvo logo on the floor fastenings under close inspection and some random aerial from God knows what :(

Edited 16 April, 201610 yr by FUBAR

Sounds like a cop-out to me (no pun intended). Is blue Golf with silver wing-mirrors a particularly common combination? The odds of the plate being "accidently" made and put on an identical car must be very long indeed. When you watch Halfords make up plates, they punch in the reg, print on yellow, then print on white. To make up a single plate wrongly would be hard - you'd need to make a pair. To have different plates front and back would be very hard. A "common occurance" it would not be.

Sounds like the usual "we can't be bothered as it's not a recordable crime (no target to meet) - tough luck if it happens again" attitude.

I hear what you're saying, and this was my initial thoughts. However after listening to what the Police officer had to say, it happens all the time apparently. Her full time job is dealing with this sort of stuff, so whilst the odds are long, so is winning the lottery and someone seems to win that on a regular basis!

When I bought a Fiat 20v in 2001 (second hand) the dealer put the wrong plates on it, I was travelling around blissfully unaware that the plates related to a Nissan Micra still on the dealers forecourt.  The only hint I had of anything wrong was my insurance company said they couldn't find the car on their database but they did the insurance on the make / model instead.  About 2 weeks after I picked the car up I got a phone call from the dealer telling me I was riding around on the wrong plates.  I'm sure I would have been pulled over if it happened today but there wasn't much in the way of ANPR back then.

I remember a case I was involved in at a previous job. A chap had a maroon Audi (I think it was an 80) with private plates. It was written off in an accident and he replaced it with a used A4 in Silver. His plates were transferred across to the new car, but after few months he started to receive all sorts of notifications about parking tickets, driving in bus lanes etc. It turns out his insurance company had sold it into the trade and, despite having registered new plates for it, left the old private plates on. I guess these things can happen for all sorts of reasons.

Peugeot dealer I once worked for sold a car, the tech put the wrong plate on the back, wasn't picked up for 12 months.

Did they sell it to a blind man (or woman)??????

Did they sell it to a blind man (or woman)??????

 

Little old lady I think, was only a letter or two out on the end. You'd be surprised how many people use the first two letters, the numbers and the colour (or in this job, the numbers and the model)

Little story of a speeding trial I had once

Defendant on a Ducati denied speeding, claiming his bike had been cloned

Prosecution came armed with a photograph from a previous incident he accepted, wearing a distinctive set of leathers, accompanied by a friend on another Ducati in equally distinctive set of leathers

Lo and behold, in the picture for the new offence, was the rider in the same leathers, and in the picture was a friend, wearing the same leathers as the old photo

No prizes for guessing his legal representative took him outside and quickly came back in with a change of plea

Classic

Edited 18 April, 201610 yr by Brimma

A long long time ago when I was a manager with BT I had a phone call from the office "find Mr XXXX and take his van off the road immediately"

It turned out it had different plates front and rear and even closer inspection showed the tax disc to be neither of them!

This was in the days when the group vehicles were all identical Escort vans ,bulk purchased direct from Ford.

<snip>

A quick call revealed that the car involved was indeed identical to mine, a blue Golf with silver wing mirrors. However I explained I had CCTV of me at work at the time of the offence, and the car was always in my possession.

It soon became apparent that the offence was not going to be pursued, in fact the officer said there was very little they could do based on the facts.

A good result for me, albeit the only fair one, but always a nagging doubt they may have pursued it further and I could well do without the hassle.

There conclusion was that there is probably another identical car with my reg plate on. They don't think it is maliciously cloned, but probably duplicated by mistake. Whilst this sounds unlikely, they reckon they see this regularly, especially with large lease companies or fleets. It may even have the correct one on the front and mine on the back!

Anyway received a letter this morning from the Police to say they are following up the matter with my lease company, but will not pursue the offence any further with me

 

But did you actually provide the CCTV ? Sorry if that's earlier in the thread!

 

 

I had a Golf ( '04 plate) which had an "identical" sister - local Police put a marker on the other vehicle, and also said it was regular among fleet cars.

But did you actually provide the CCTV ? Sorry if that's earlier in the thread!

I had a Golf ( '04 plate) which had an "identical" sister - local Police put a marker on the other vehicle, and also said it was regular among fleet cars.

Nope. I offered to provide the CCTV evidence right from my intial reply to the NIP. The lack of communication from the Police seemed to dictate that not much actually happened over the last 3 months.

I offered to provide it again last week but was told they were satisfied enough to not pursue the case any further, so I will keep it for posterity

Edited 18 April, 201610 yr by 999pooch

I'm waiting on mine, get one every time I trade a car in without fail.