Newham residents urged to report number plate clones

A new enforcement campaign is urging residents to be report cars with cloned registration numbers in their neighbourhood.

Criminals have taken to using false registration details on number plates to avoid paying car tax, motor insurance, MOT charges, and commit offences such as petrol theft from filling stations.

Newham Council has set up an untaxed vehicles unit within its enforcement team and it is calling on the community to help them clamp down on such vehicles by looking out for cars in their street whose number plates change frequently.

Fraudsters often take the registration number from an identical vehicle either by stealing the number plate itself or picking a car in public places such as supermarket car parks.

Victims often only realise their registration has been stolen when parking fines or speeding tickets turn up in the post.

Car cloning has increased with the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras and police estimate there are between 10,000 and 40,000 vehicles with fake plates on Britain’s roads.

Victims are advised to write to DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1ZA to record the vehicle details for future reference.

To report, dial police on 101 or go online to the council at www.newham.gov.uk/clonedcars.