As said, it’s rife. You can order up plates online, perfectly legitimately. I got a fine through a couple of weeks ago with photos. All fake- my car was cloned. Reported to plod and thankfully haven’t heard anything since… Oh, and the fine was withdrawn.
Will be one of the absolute bellends from this lot ... https://wh05dat.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooO9pTj4l2QYEJ8EUX4vrIseijTwyb-aIqE4gsmao2EUIoXRwXJ
If you receive a speeding ticket or similar by post, the range of options permitted for responses is a short list, and "cloned" is not one of the options listed. This makes it quite difficult to reply in a way which is permitted, accurate, truthful, and effective.
Apparently the fine for not having a numberplate can be considerably less than that for speeding with the correct numberplate.
Front mounted maybe. I see Lamborghini’s and Ferrari’s etc delete the front plate because in the owners view, it spoils the lines. They just keep paying the £100 spot fines when they’re nicked. No points I believe. Or there didn’t used to be.
I got a letter stating that my old bike plate (ZZR1100) was suspected of having been cloned. I phoned the coppers and it was on a transit van. I said I thought it was a bit stupid cloning a bike plate onto a van. They said they had seen a few as the age sits right with the vans age but the bikes are exempt from congestion/ clean air charges so make them less likely to get caught. No idea where they had got my plate from though, whether they just try a few numbers randomly on the mot check or had seen it put and about I don’t know.
I suspect the reason that cloning has become an epidemic, is due to the unjustified proliferation of ANPR and AI CCTV. This is not that effective at catching criminals, which is the reason we're given we have to be watched 24/7, when criminals can just clone a plate. The effect of these authoritarian decisions just adds to the harassment of law-abiding people that are already pissed off about the way they're unfairly treated. For example, if you don't tax AND insure, you've got to SORN (which is unjust anyway), and if you don't do that (or forget), you're fined. If you pay for tax on the 31st of the month, you lose a month of money, but if you cancel your tax on the 1st you don't get that month back, which is theft basically; this is all computerised now and would be so easy to make a fairer system. Go to any other country in the developed world, there isn't any road tax, there isn't any SORN, there aren't ANPR cameras everywhere, and guess what, the road surfaces are not trying to kill you. The worst you have to contend with abroad are the occasional speed cameras, and paying tolls (or for a highway sticker).
Yes! Basic 3rd-party insurance needs to be part of 'Road Tax', as per many countries. This belongs in the Frustration thread but I'm really pissed off that I tax & insure all my bikes, keep them roadworthy, legal, etc blah blah. Meanwhile some scrote can pop on a nonsense plate, probably have no insurance, ride like a complete twat (or worse, ride like the Deliveroo drivers & electric off-roaders here) and no-one is going to catch them! And those delivery riders - all on L-plates, always on their phones, in & out of lanes, traffic, passing on the inside, being utter nobs, parking all over the pavements in groups.... rant rant rant rant. If I rode like that on busy city roads I'd expect to be pulled, especially as I'm fully traceable/legal! I never thought I'd want more policing on our roads, but here in the big city (Bristol) I'd really welcome them!!
Maybe you do. But it didn’t used to be the case. Knew a lad that had the front of his car plateless. Told me he got a fixed penalty once in a blue moon but no points…
Having read the thread I thought I'd do some checking on the penalties for Registration Plate offences, just to be clear, having lost one from a new bike recently. However, the usual quick web searches didn't reveal any definitive information, so I searched a little harder, as follows. This extract from Section 42 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 states: "42 Not fixing registration mark. (1) If a registration mark is not fixed on a vehicle as required by virtue of section 23, the relevant person is guilty of an offence. (2) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale. (3) In subsection (1) “the relevant person” means the person driving the vehicle or, where it is not being driven, the person keeping it." To the untrained eye, Section (2) appears to imply the penalty is a fine determined within a standard scale, and no licence penalty points are mentioned. The links below provide more related information, but do not state definitively that Penalty points are not a sentencing option. https://www.gov.uk/displaying-number-plates . https://assets.publishing.service.g...le-registration-numbers-and-number-plates.pdf . https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/561/contents . https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/22/contents . https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/22/section/42 . I think this subject would benefit from an authoritative statement from any clear thinking legal experts on the forum, who might resolve the matter conclusively. Hope the above helps, somewhat! Tom.
