Cloned Number Plates

We’ve spoken about what to do if your plates are stolen, or cloned plates, but what is the false number plates penalty for those who are committing the fraudulent crimes? For those who do commit a false number plate offence, the repercussions aren’t so great – unsurprisingly!

The police made a total of 41,385 stops between the years 2014-2018, in regards to illegal number plates. Between 1st January 2019 and 31st March 2020, the recorded total of stolen registration plates was 23,067. (According to the Metropolitan Police database).

As we can see, the rates for stolen/cloned plates are immense and these are just the caught and recorded ones! The actual number could be much higher.

AutoExpress spoke to the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) who said that “ANPR [automatic number plate recognition] data is increasingly enabling police to identify vehicles operating on cloned plates, using tools such as journey time analysis. This further informs our investigative work.” However, with the data we have found it is self-explanatory that plate cloning is still on the rise. Faster than ever. 

The Illegal Number Plate Fine

Measures are currently in place by the DVLA to deter individuals from displaying cloned or illegal plates, through fines. The most common fine handed out amounts to £100.00 however it goes up to £1,000.00.. or even confiscating the registration completely.  

As part of the crackdown on dodgy plates, a new bill was introduced within the House Of Commons, sponsored by the MP Andrew Griffith. The new bill; “The Vehicle registration Offences Penalty Points Bill”, means that punishments for displaying illegal plates (including cloned ones) will now increase from the fine.

The newly introduced retributions will change the ‘simple’ fine of around £100 to issuing penalty points to licences. These will hopefully act as a deterrent due to the more serious and permanent nature of the points. 

As to whether more sanctions are introduced, we can’t be sure. We just sincerely hope that the current sanctions are enough to stop criminals from cloning / stealing plates from now on!

How To Prevent Number Plate Crimes

If you’re wondering about the prevention of cloned or stolen plates, we have some top tips for you!

Here are some of our top tips for avoiding stolen plates:

• Parking indoors if possible
• Parking on your private drive or road
• Park in busy, well-lit areas where CCTV operates
• Park near busy areas where people can easily see
• Use anti-theft screw kits – which you can get here!

Here are some of our top tips for avoiding cloned plates:

• Purchase your number plates from a legal DVLA registered company (such as Number1Plates). A company who is legit will ask to see your entitlement (proof of ownership) and ID before they dispatch your new plates. This is because it is a legal requirement, by the police and the DVLA. If a company doesn’t ask for these, then they are operating illegally and allow anybody to order any plates – which is exactly how cloning happens!

If you have any questions or concerns about any of the information which we have provided, please feel free to contact us and email in to [email protected]