UKH

Basically:

Bought a used car. Previous owner had the V5, I checked online that it had a valid MOT,I sorted out  insurance, etc. Drove the thing back from seller's address in Nottingham to my place in Birmingham, paperwork sorted out, new V5 arrived through the post a few days later. So far, so good.

Except that I then start getting ULEZ fines for random bits of London that I have never been to, with dates after I became the registered keeper. On those dates, I was  sat at home in Brum and logged onto work. The car was sat on its bum in a lock-up garage up the road from the block of flats I live inb. On the time scales involved, the ULEZ vissues were mostly timestamped when I was curled up in my pit and fast asleep.

So, sages, of UKC, how deal with this?

https://www.mylondon.news/news/transport/tfl-reveals-number-ulez-fines-2795...
 

https://www.wilsons.co.uk/blog/what-to-do-if-your-number-plate-is-cloned

condider also a dash cam. always ask (and keep) for a receipt for anything you buy from now on, and purchase on card. Receipts have date time stamp so can be used to prove you are no where near the alleged offence. So if the cloned plates clock up a ticket and  ten minutes later you are buying a coffee on the other side of the country it’s strong evidence it’s not you.

Soneone tried to fraudulently claim my mum was in a RTC having scoped her car and plates. The only problem for them was at the time of the made up event she was buying food at the supermarket many many miles away. Case collapsed, but the scrote got away with the attempt.
 

Interesting. Does the VIN on the V5 match the VIN on the chassis? Would the car be allowed to enter the London ULEZ? 
 

From tfl.gov.uk:

The ULEZ standards are: Euro 3 for motorcycles, mopeds, motorised tricycles and quadricycles (L category) Euro 4 (NOx) for petrol cars, vans, minibuses and other specialist vehicles. Euro 6 (NOx and PM) for diesel cars, vans and minibuses and other specialist vehicles.​​​​​​​

Put a largish sticker on the front and back and take photos of these yourself. When you get photos through the post you can demonstrate it was not your car. If that makes sense.

It already has a relatively obvious repair to the rear bumper (and was like that when I bought it), and since I've had it it's also had a big, obvious parking permit in the front windscreen. Unfortunately, the ULEZ camera photos were taken in the dark and appear to show the numberplate and nothing else. (The front-facing ones can best be described as "blurred thing with headlights".)

I'll buy some stickers anyway.

In which case if you appeal the fines on the basis you think your plates have been cloned, they will be unable to prove otherwise, which should be sufficient..?

The VIN matches up, but it isn't ULEZ compliant (it's a diesel octavia). So what it looks like has happened is that there's someone in London running around with dodgy plates to avoid £12.50/day in ULEZ charges.

I had my plates removed overnight a few years back. Just to go to the local Police and tell them what's happened, hopefully they'll be able to advise the best course of action. Maybe also contact the DVLA, you won't be the first person that this has happened to so they may have a procedure in place for such eventualities.

Are you certain of which vehicle has the genuine plates - yours or the ULEZ one?

Ring the police. They’ll be able to see records from ANPR cameras and they won’t tally with where you are.

Just out of interest, would this be the reason the previous owner sold the car?

If any part of the reason for selling the car was that they were fed up with dealing with fraudulent ULEZ (or, indeed, other) fines and are shifting the problem onto someone else - you - then you probably have a case against them for not disclosing all information about the car.

If your clone is happy to defraud ULEZ, they probably won't be too concerned about parking or speeding fines, either, so expect them in due course!

As mentioned, contact DVLA/police immediately.

Sorry to hear your plates have been cloned, I read an article in the Guardian about it the other day and it does sound like a nightmare. Not sure if there is any useful information in there, but here it is:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/feb/10/car-cloning-drivers-fines-sca...

First of all report to the Police.  Cloning is a criminal offence, and a crime number will help your case.

Then appeal the ULEZ fines giving the crime number and any evidence you have of not having been in London on those days.

Beyond that it's difficult - you could get a personalised plate so yours is changed, perhaps, there are some very cheap ones?  Annoying that you should have to pay for that when you wouldn't have to pay to change your phone number as a victim of crime.

I think it's more likely that the car was 'cloned' while the previous owner was in the process of selling it - if you think about it looking for a car of the right model and colour that's advertised for sale is by far the easiest way for a miscreant to find one.

This is not particularly cheerful reading for the OP, but might contain some useful info:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/feb/10/car-cloning-drivers-fines-sca...

Your first two points are spot on.

I don't worry about changing number plate etc. 

If the police and DVLA have been informed, it's up to those issuing the fines to prove it was the OP, not the other way round.

Some mild "evidence" is phone location which is on by default on android (assume Apple also).

Daft idea possibly - could you replace your number plates themselves with some more distinctive (but still road legal, obvs) ones.  How about a nice Welsh dragon on the left hand side where the optional national flag goes?

I don't see how this can help with the fines to date. Future ones, but you can't prove your car had them. You can take a photo but when was it taken. What if you swap them before going into London.

I would stick with putting the onus on TFL to prove it.

Well it can't do that directly, obviously.  It's an alternative (or an addition) to making the car distinctive so it's visibly not the one in photos of the 'cloned' car.  (Hopefully even ones that show nothing clearly other than the number plate itself.)

That too, obviously.  But it seems pretty evident that that alone is insufficient.

In principle yes, but it depends whether the OP is in the mood for constantly appealing fines, including private car park ones which can be more of a faff.

Notifying the police can also help to get the criminal dealt with.  From the Guardian article linked elsewhere in this thread:

Barker says if you find out your car has fallen victim to a cloning fraudster, it’s vital to act quickly and alert the authorities – ie the police – before further crimes are committed. “Not only will it save you having to appeal against any future tickets, but it will hopefully help the police snare the criminals, as a cloned vehicle will be flagged on nationwide [ANPR] cameras as one to look out for,” he says.

Maybe potentially falling foul of an ANPR check would be a good reason change your own registration - though one would hope that the police would be canny enough to be able to distinguish between the genuine vehicle and the one running on cloned plates.  For example, taking things like geographic location into account: a vehicle which has regularly been caught on camera entering the London ULEZ illegally would seem to be most likely to turn up on on ANPR on a regular basis in and around the south-east, rather than in Wingnut's home territory.

More mild evidence just in case etc: take a daily photo of the car in its lock up and photo of millage and email to ULEZ each day. 

I'd start by reporting the cloning to the police with the ULEZ fines as evidence, get a crime number then with that appeal the fines in writing with whatever supporting evidence you do have.

Also double check your plates actually match your car then if so, get a new reg'.

jk

The plus side is that while they are tracking down the cloned car, you can get away with traffic crimes to your hearts content