False / Fake number plates.

[Tilt]

Curious on your thoughts as this situation arose recently. Purposefully keeping it vague at this moment but it is true.

A driver parked on our (pretty quiet) road and was then seen walking up the road and out of sight. Now this is well away from any shops, tram stops etc etc, and most neighbours know each other or at least if someone lives on the street or not.

 

This happened on a few days following each other.

This raised a few eyebrows and so the registration was checked on dvla which came up not recognised, I think that was what it said, iirc. That was it, no further advice or anything.

 

So as to hopefully not get any comeback for anyone on the street, a note was put on the vehicle simply stating that it's details and location had been reported to the police.

 

It hasn't been seen since, so either the note worked or the driver didn't intend returning anyway.

 

What would you have done?

 

 

[peter3197]

I would have reported it immediately to the police. If the number plate wasn't recognised it wouldn't have been insured, taxed etc.

[MikeTheThinker]

2 minutes ago, peter3197 said:

I would have reported it immediately to the police. If the number plate wasn't recognised it wouldn't have been insured, taxed etc.

 

+1

[Guest]

It may be worth dropping the info at your local Plod Shop. If they can be bothered, they should raise a 5x5x5 (or something similar) and post it out to relevant agencies. 

 

It may be something, or it may be nothing. In a lot of cases, it's all about joining the dots. It's possible the info you are providing is a missing dot. 

 

Unfortunately, I have found in recent dealings with PS for them to be unprofessional, incompetent and downright lazy. 

 

[mac11irl]

As above. 

Take a sneaky snap of the vin number in windscreen, and the reg number that shows up unrecognised and report it to coppers.

They may be inefficient but a flag on ANPR system could surely be done?

Driver is likely the sort of person who is the reason insurance premiums keep going up not down...

[punyXpress]

Doesn't the DVLA site give an option to report this?

Also, try the number with motor parts factor & see what they say.

 

[Ootohere]

As you change personal plates / cherished it is not unusual (Tom Jones#) for details to not show.

Same with some Undercover Police / HMRC with a car in covert mode.

Camera car or Rat Trap.  

? Did anyone check the car to see if locked?

 

Maybe the street / residents are under investigation.

Running dodgy businesses from homes, parking on kerbs, running a brothel or cannabis farm...  

Or putting the wrong items in their bins.

Edited 15 March, 2019 by Skoffski

[xman]

Report it anonymously.

 

Fake number plates are used by thieves and non insured tax evading scumbags. Stealing petrol without paying is a big problem as police don't class it worthy of investigation, so what are all those APNR cameras on every street corner for? We, the law abiding mugs pay for it instead.

 

I have seen guys frantically changing number plates over in Pub car parks. Scum.

[peter3197]

35 minutes ago, Skoffski said:

 

Same with some Undercover Police / HMRC with a car in covert mode.

 

These vehicles have protected status on DVLA as do DWP fraud privately owned vehicles. The vehicle will still come up on search but if the police are asked for the details of the owner etc they will not give them out and refer the request to the officer's manager. Official vehicles, that is Crown owned, used to have  Crown disks instead of tax disks unless we applied for dummy tax disks, which we did.

[andyoctavia]

I reported a van parked in our road a few years ago. It had been there for four or five days and didn't belong to any of the neighbours. It wasn't taxed or MOT'd but the police weren't interested. I then got in touch with DVLA and the next day it had gone. The other problem seems to be cloned plates, where the dodgy vehicle won't match the correct plates for it.

[mac11irl]

Dvla are, to be fair, very efficient...

They even stroll around airport car parks... as i found out once...

[VWD]

Their is another problem with plates. I used to have a dealer living across the road. Deliveries were regular, and the vehicle stood out by the precision parking. Every so often one vehicle ( Ford fiesta , blue) would park up ,outside the address, than precision park ,with engine running. Occasionally the passenger would leave the vehicle and knock on the door. Most times I'd see a phone in driver's hand, and the neighbour would walk out , money would change hands, bloke would walk to passenger side, slide package into jacket and go inside.

But on odd occasions, we'd see same make of vehicle ( Ford Fiesta, in  different colours) park outside. Same plates.

I did follow this car on one occasion. I'd suspect driver was aware and it made it apparent that driver was on lookout for tails, as it and it's clone never appeared again.

[xman]

37 minutes ago, VWD said:

Their is another problem with plates. I used to have a dealer living across the road. Deliveries were regular, and the vehicle stood out by the precision parking. Every so often one vehicle ( Ford fiesta , blue) would park up ,outside the address, than precision park ,with engine running. Occasionally the passenger would leave the vehicle and knock on the door. Most times I'd see a phone in driver's hand, and the neighbour would walk out , money would change hands, bloke would walk to passenger side, slide package into jacket and go inside.

But on odd occasions, we'd see same make of vehicle ( Ford Fiesta, in  different colours) park outside. Same plates.

I did follow this car on one occasion. I'd suspect driver was aware and it made it apparent that driver was on lookout for tails, as it and it's clone never appeared again.

Pizza delivery!

[Tilt]

^^^.

[VWD]

Pizza ,with an Extra large topping of illegal substances. Bloke was last seen complaining about Police removing a large quantity of plants in black bags.

[VWD]

On 15/03/2019 at 14:44, peter3197 said:

These vehicles have protected status on DVLA as do DWP fraud privately owned vehicles. The vehicle will still come up on search but if the police are asked for the details of the owner etc they will not give them out and refer the request to the officer's manager. Official vehicles, that is Crown owned, used to have  Crown disks instead of tax disks unless we applied for dummy tax disks, which we did.

This caused the Post Office financial problems when Postal and Telecomms split way back in the 70's. I can't remember if it affected Postal as they were still a Crown  Service, but suddenly all Telecomms vehicles had to have a road fund licence. Previously as a Crown service they were exempt.

[CWARD]

A mate of mine bought my old Mondeo. He’d had it a while when one day parking up outside his girlfriends house and he noticed another Mondeo, same colour and also an estate but lesser spec. He was just about to walk away from his car when he did a double take on the other car and realised it had his number plate on too. 

He called the police who turned up about an hour later and a few hours after that the car was gone on the back of a recovery truck. 

[VWD]

Cward- same as my earlier post on the two Fiestas. ANPR would show plate XY 55ABC as on a Fiesta. Taxed /insured /MOT so legal. BUT , the legal vehicle could be pink with white spots, whilst the illegal one was green with purple spots. Both same make &model.

System is ONLY looking for vehicle which flags up as missing paperwork. It takes a vigilant human eyeball to spot something out of sorts. And this is where the myth of the magic of ANPR falls down.

[punyXpress]

On 16/03/2019 at 11:38, mac11irl said:

Dvla are, to be fair, very efficient...

 

Is this the same DVLA who, for a considerable time, used to delete classes from driving licences on renewal?

This included a police motorcycle instructor whose motorcycle category was deleted and he had to retake his motorcycle test - he passed!

DVLA had thrown away the pink slips on uprating the original licence, so nobody had a record of it ( shades of Empire Windrush ? )

[CWARD]

2 minutes ago, punyXpress said:

Is this the same DVLA who, for a considerable time, used to delete classes from driving licences on renewal?

This included a police motorcycle instructor whose motorcycle category was deleted and he had to retake his motorcycle test - he passed!

DVLA had thrown away the pink slips on uprating the original licence, so nobody had a record of it ( shades of Empire Windrush ? )

 

I know a few people who renewing their HGV licences have lost categories too. It’s common practice to take photos of your licence prior to renewal but still have to jump through hoops to get them reinstated but luckily no retests

[KenONeill]

On 23/03/2019 at 09:16, punyXpress said:

Is this the same DVLA who, for a considerable time, used to delete classes from driving licences on renewal?

This included a police motorcycle instructor whose motorcycle category was deleted and he had to retake his motorcycle test - he passed!

DVLA had thrown away the pink slips on uprating the original licence, so nobody had a record of it ( shades of Empire Windrush ? )

 

On 23/03/2019 at 09:22, CWARD said:

 

I know a few people who renewing their HGV licences have lost categories too. It’s common practice to take photos of your licence prior to renewal but still have to jump through hoops to get them reinstated but luckily no retests

Not only am I going to photocopy my licence, but I'm going to get it signed as a certified copy by a mate who's a Notary Public.

[Aspman]

I've had many issues with the DVLA over the years. In fact I can confortably state that, with the exception of licence renewal, they have screwed up every interaction I've ever had with them.

 

Lost documents resulting in delayed sale (close to 4 months) of my lates wife's car costing me a couple of hundreds in depreciation as the year ticked over (they lost them, knew they'd lost them but have a policy of not saying until challenged).

 

Spelled my name wrong on a new charished plate form

On moving the plate cocked up and applied it back to the car I'd just sold

Lost my Dad's documents...twice

 

And as I told my story of woe to the clerk at the post office she told me how her daughters licence came back with a blokes picture on it.