Cloned reg plates

User1998

Recently imported a Volkswagen Golf and after a week of having an Irish registration I’ve gotten two fines from E Flow for going through the toll. I haven’t been near the toll. Called them and they said it was a white Mercedes with the same registration as my car, told me the plates were cloned and to report to Garda. As of last week the Mercedes would have had reg plates that didn’t exist and had no registered owner etc. but since getting my Irish registration after VRT, the plates now match with mine.

Anyone any experience of this? Just waiting for E Flow to send me photos of the car and I’l be going to the Garda

colm_mcm

Could be as simple as a screw making a 0 look like an 8, or a 3 looking like a 9 etc.

User1998

Didn’t think of that actually, I just changed the 0’s 3’s and 5’s to similar numbers there and tried booking an NCT but theres no record of registrations with similar numbers that a screw would change, a white BMW did show up tho when I changed the 3 to an 8 so if the woman on the phone mistaked a white Merc for a white BMW you might have found the answer, I’l find out when I receive the photos from them

colm_mcm

PM me your reg

Wishbone Ash

Could be simply a mix up of digits by the plate maker. A lad at work had a different front and rear plate. Neither he nor anyone noticed it for years until he was stopped by Gardai one night. Presumably they had ran a check before stopping him and it didn't match.

sumo12

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Could be simply a mix up of digits by the plate maker. A lad at work had a different front and rear plate. Neither he nor anyone noticed it for years until he was stopped by Gardai one night. Presumably they had ran a check before stopping him and it didn't match.

Many years ago the garage I worked in put out a new car with a D on the front plate and WW on the rear plate, same year and registration number. True story.

User1998

Yeah I’m sure it happens the odd time but it’s obviously still very very uncommon so I’l have to investigate further. The woman said if I want to avoid paying the fine I’l have to go to the Garda station so I’l have to go up once eflow send me the photos of the car that went through the toll

wildwillow

I also had a car with different number plates front and rear. Noticed it after I arrived home from collecting the car from the garage. Another car from the garage had the matching set, young lad put the a wrong plate on each of the cars.

Atlantic Dawn

Surely it's not your problem, they have a photo of the car, it's not representative of what that car is registered as on the national vehicle file, they should call the Gardai to chase their money, not you. I wouldn't get involved in this as it's their problem, not yours.

User1998

Yeah I was thinking that myself about the money, I’m not one bit worried about the money they can f*ck off if they think there getting a cent from me, I know there not going to chase me for it it clearly wasn’t my car that went through the toll, its more so if the driver gets caught speeding etc. and then I have to deal with getting letters in the post, I know a quick phone call can solve any letter or fine I get in the post but its still annoying. Could easily have the Garda at my door if the driver does something serious.

As mentioned above it could just be a screw cover or something silly

Silent Running

A few years ago my son was selling a car after he bought a new one. The donedeal ad had the reg displayed. He started getting E-flow letters stating that the car had passed through the toll on multiple occasions (it hadn't moved), same make, model and colour, they had pictures to prove it.

The saviour was that the cloners used a different font on the plates and my son could prove that his plates looked different.

He had to report the issue to the Garda unit in the Phoenix park. Once all that was done, E-flow were satisfied and he heard no more about it.

User1998

Thanks thats good to know, I suppose my saviour is that its a completely different car! And did the Garda ever follow up about the cloned reg? Realistically they can’t really do anything about it can they

Silent Running

User1998 wrote: »

Thanks thats good to know, I suppose my saviour is that its a completely different car! And did the Garda ever follow up about the cloned reg?

Nope, not a word.

Atlantic Dawn

User1998 wrote: »

Yeah I was thinking that myself about the money, I’m not one bit worried about the money they can f*ck off if they think there getting a cent from me, I know there not going to chase me for it it clearly wasn’t my car that went through the toll, its more so if the driver gets caught speeding etc. and then I have to deal with getting letters in the post, I know a quick phone call can solve any letter or fine I get in the post but its still annoying. Could easily have the Garda at my door if the driver does something serious.

As mentioned above it could just be a screw cover or something silly

When you get the photo's go the Gardai and make a formal statement so its recorded. Check on Cartell/Motorcheck etc to see if the screw cover could turn any similar numbering to match a white Mercedes, this info would be useful for Gardai to close out the case.

User1998

Yeah I tried similar registrations and found two Grey Mercedes and one white BMW, I’l have to wait until I get the photos and see if anything matches up.

zg3409

I would report to gardai and Shannon asap before you get photos. The dodgy car may buy petrol and drive off without paying , or run a Garda checkpoint, get involved in a crash and drive off.. I think Shannon issue you a new reg in these cases so you can move on with your life.

Austmcc

Happened a family member. Two used cars of the same make, model and colour, year and county sold the same week or so from the dealer (different spec). The cars were registered correctly and got the right car on pick up, but they had mixed up putting on the reg plates. Only thing that tipped us off was the m50 toll. Numerous trips getting charged but had moved away from Dublin.

In this case it was an easy sort with checking the log book, seeing the different number and contacting the dealer and eflow.

User1998

zg3409 wrote: »

I would report to gardai and Shannon asap before you get photos. The dodgy car may buy petrol and drive off without paying , or run a Garda checkpoint, get involved in a crash and drive off.. I think Shannon issue you a new reg in these cases so you can move on with your life.

Yeah stuff like that is what I don’t want happening but thankfully its a completely different make and model so I reckon I’d be off the hook fairly quickly if something did happen. I’l wait until I have the pics and go to the Garda station and see what they say, they might tell me what way to go about it regarding contacting Shannon etc.

Hopefully its just a once off and is just a screw cap cover that makes a number look different

meathstevie

User1998 wrote: »

Recently imported a Volkswagen Golf and after a week of having an Irish registration I’ve gotten two fines from E Flow for going through the toll. I haven’t been near the toll. Called them and they said it was a white Mercedes with the same registration as my car, told me the plates were cloned and to report to Garda. As of last week the Mercedes would have had reg plates that didn’t exist and had no registered owner etc. but since getting my Irish registration after VRT, the plates now match with mine.

Anyone any experience of this? Just waiting for E Flow to send me photos of the car and I’l be going to the Garda

No matter what rabbit e-flow tries to pull out of their hat if you or your car didn’t cross their toll bridge you owe them nothing and that’s the end of that.

If they wish to recover money from the party that has defrauded them or has faulty plates on their vehicle that’s between them and that driver.

It’s not up to you to prove that you don’t owe them, it’s up to them to prove that you do.

A picture of your car and log book should suffice especially if the car going around with the wrong registration plate isn’t even the same. It’s not like e-flow hasn’t got the means to verify this. They have the CCTV footage and can look up a registration.

User1998

For anyone vaguely interested or for anyone reading in the future:

I went to the Garda station, only took 5 minutes gave reg and contact details and got an incident report number.

Called E-Flow and its sorted so hopefully no more fines.

Thanks for the advice folks

I once had the cops banging on my door saying I was in a car chase in Cashel at 3am on a Tuesday!
Had to go to the station and all.
Cloned car matched mine, black astra estate.

hoodie6029

May have been a case of someone driving around with the fake plates for a long time. When your car was registered it finally gave the authorities an address to send the letters too and the computer just printed and sent them. Complete head ache but hopefully you're sorted now.

User1998

hoodie6029 wrote: »

May have been a case of someone driving around with the fake plates for a long time. When your car was registered it finally gave the authorities an address to send the letters too and the computer just printed and sent them. Complete head ache but hopefully you're sorted now.

Yeah I’d say its been since the car was first registered. Either that or it’s something like a screw cap cover changing one of the numbers to a reg plate that didn’t exist, and now it exists and is registered to me. I think the whole point of cloned plates is that their meant to match the exact make model and colour so it’s probably unlikely that it was anything like that.

Atlantic Dawn

User1998 wrote: »

For anyone vaguely interested or for anyone reading in the future:

I went to the Garda station, only took 5 minutes gave reg and contact details and got an incident report number.

Called E-Flow and its sorted so hopefully no more fines.

Thanks for the advice folks

Out of interest did you get the pics of the vehicle they had captured? Was the plate possibly obscured by a screw?

screamer

I’d say you’re gonna need a solicitor. This happened to a family member. He got the bills and didn’t pay them, lots of bills, the fines. Called and Wrote to them numerous times to say he physically couldn’t have been on the toll bridge at those dates and times as his vehicle had blown it’s engine and has been parked up at his mechanics for weeks. The mechanic even gave a statement to back that up and told them to send someone and they could inspect the vehicle themselves. In the meanwhile toll bridge was being used by cloned vehicle and they kept sending bills and fines. They sent the images, I think via his solicitor. Real registered vehicle was a black car van, the scrotes who cloned the plates were driving a green Peugeot partner. It was clear and evident this was NOT the correct vehicle. However, this went to court and the judge threw it out, but it went that far and family member had all the stress and hassle to prove it wasn’t him. Eflow didn’t care less, the stress it caused was awful.

User1998

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Out of interest did you get the pics of the vehicle they had captured? Was the plate possibly obscured by a screw?

They went back on what they said and wouldn’t send them out to me, I assume something to do with data protection. I would have liked to see them

User1998

screamer wrote: »

I’d say you’re gonna need a solicitor. This happened to a family member. He got the bills and didn’t pay them, lots of bills, the fines. Called and Wrote to them numerous times to say he physically couldn’t have been on the toll bridge at those dates and times as his vehicle had blown it’s engine and has been parked up at his mechanics for weeks. The mechanic even gave a statement to back that up and told them to send someone and they could inspect the vehicle themselves. In the meanwhile toll bridge was being used by cloned vehicle and they kept sending bills and fines. They sent the images, I think via his solicitor. Real registered vehicle was a black car van, the scrotes who cloned the plates were driving a green Peugeot partner. It was clear and evident this was NOT the correct vehicle. However, this went to court and the judge threw it out, but it went that far and family member had all the stress and hassle to prove it wasn’t him. Eflow didn’t care less, the stress it caused was awful.

That sounds horrible, they did confirm on the phone to me that the 3 fines I received, as well as 3 more that I hadn’t yet received have all been cancelled and that I won’t get anymore from them so maybe they’ve changed their approach since then? They were very understanding and it was really straight forward. Haven’t gotten a fine since but maybe I’m speaking too soon, hopefully not.

Atlantic Dawn

User1998 wrote: »

They went back on what they said and wouldn’t send them out to me, I assume something to do with data protection. I would have liked to see them

Maybe they took a 2nd look and all became clear that it was a screw head. I was issued a fine myself before that wasn't my car, when I questioned them about it that my car was x model and can I have a photo of the car which they had captured they backed down and said it was an error on their side and that was case closed.


At least it's not the same model so unlikely to be anything sinister.

User1998

Yeah your probably right actually, they didn’t give me a reason for not providing them and when I went to the station they said usually the person who reports it has photos with them, and other posters here are mentioning photos so it would probably was a cock up on their part

screamer

User1998 wrote: »

That sounds horrible, they did confirm on the phone to me that the 3 fines I received, as well as 3 more that I hadn’t yet received have all been cancelled and that I won’t get anymore from them so maybe they’ve changed their approach since then? They were very understanding and it was really straight forward. Haven’t gotten a fine since but maybe I’m speaking too soon, hopefully not.

I hope so. Still, I’d keep a close eye out on it, they made my family member’s life hell and it dragged on for 8 months, when anyone could see the vehicles were as different as chalk and cheese.

Silent Running

screamer wrote: »

I hope so. Still, I’d keep a close eye out on it, they made my family member’s life hell and it dragged on for 8 months, when anyone could see the vehicles were as different as chalk and cheese.

Seems odd. In my son's case the car was the same registration, make, model and colour as his.

The only saving grace was that the scumbags used a different font, particularly the number 4. The 4 on my son's plate was open and the cloned one was closed. E-flow sent my son a picture of the car that used the toll.

Once my son reported it to the Garda station and sent e-flow an email with pictures of his reg plate, they were fine with that and cancelled all the fines. He never heard anything about it after that. This would have been winter of 2016.