A bewildered mother had to prove her innocence after thieves have cloned her number plate and crashed on a car hundreds of kilometers away.
Shelli Birkett, from Herne Bay, in Kent, only realized what had happened when her insurance company told her that she had had an accident in Liverpool.
The artist and designer has never been to the city in her life, but said that she had to 'fight' to prove that she was not on Merseyside at the time of the crash.
“I said it wasn't me, but they asked me to prove my place of residence and send photos of the condition of my car, and they kept investigating.
“Then I remembered that I could use my Google locations and luckily I was in Herne Bay on that day and placed some videos on my company page on social media, which shows that I was working that day,” she told BBC South East.
But it was not only her number plate that was copied, the thieves had also used the same brand of the car.
The case was only closed on the 'scary' experience when Mrs. Birkett was able to prove that her location was not at the place of crime.
Nevertheless, she still received letters from the lawyers from the insurance company who asked for settlement money.
Shelli Birkett (photo) had to prove her innocence after thieves have cloned her number plate and crashed a car in a city where she had never been before
The car – accident was in Liverpool, knows 280 miles away from her house – but she only realized after her insurance company told her that she had had an accident in the northern city
But it was not only her number plate that was copied, the thieves had also used the same brand of the car
The scam means that criminals steal real number plates and even model them on the same brand of the car Dodge are caught while the real owner of the records absorbs big fines, the Autoring Organization Rac said.
They often find number plates to clon online, for example through images about buying and selling cars from cars.
Drivers caught with a cloned number plate can receive a fine of up to £ 1,000 and possibly penalty points on a license.
Car owners received nearly 10,000 fine knowledge on vehicles in 2023 with which they were not related after their plates were cloned.
Last year there was an increase of 26 percent in reported license plate cloning – and an increase of 689 percent since 2013.
In 2013, a total of 1,248 people contacted the driver and vehicle license agency on correspondence, fines or fines for their vehicles as a result of cloning.
But by 2022 that number had risen to 7,837 cases and a year later it had shot up to 9,850 cases, a freedom of information revealed the car WOW.
Illegal number of clones of the number of plate has also been blamed for drivers trying to prevent fines from being paid for older polluting cars.
Reports of cars that are wrongly linked to fines for driving in 'clean air' or 'low emissions' zones have been shot, which suggests that more and more rogue motorists are fit fake plates to cheat the enforcement cameras in the city center.
The mother, from Herne Bay, said she had to 'fight' to prove that she was not in the city then and had never been to Liverpool in her life
The case was closed when Mrs. Birkett was able to prove that her location was not at the place of crime
Birmingham, London and Bath have set up on green zones. The clean air zone of Bristol loads older cars £ 9 and HGVS, buses and coaches £ 100.
Ch Spt Rob Marsh from the police of Kent said: 'With regard to number plate thefts, people use them clearly to commit other crimes, such as whether it is to prevent congestion, other route costs, whether it has to do with making fuel without paying.
'With the increases in the costs of living that can sometimes be a reason for people to enter into this type of crime.
'If someone wakes up in the morning and their license plate is missing, they know they are the victim of crime.
“If the number plate has, without the victim's knowledge, we have to wait until it has activated an ANPR camera that is linked to another incident and then it would come to our attention and we would start our investigation.”
The home office said: 'The cloning and incorrect number of plates influences road safety and offers coverage for criminals. We work together with the police, the DVLA and other partners to combat these crimes.
'We started working on a new road safety strategy, the first in more than a decade, which aims to reduce killing through the way and prevent related crime. More details will be shared in due course. '
