Council fine advice (falsely accused)

[El Robo]

Good day everyone,

Hope I can get some advice here as it's the first time I deal with such a situation (im an EU national).

Anyways recently I started getting notices of parking violiations from the council of Waltham Forest which is somewhere in London. Which is odd since I've never been there.

So at first it was a parking fine of 0 pounds, when trying to dispute it online their system couldn't even find it so I forgot about it.
Then I got a fine for bus lane use, this time a fine of 130 pounds and I could view it online as well, well I imediately challenged it but still awaiting response.
Since then I've received 2 more parking charges of 0 pounds.

Looking at the photos I can tell it's my car but way way before me, atleast 2018 if not earlier (the paint looks impecable, not to mention mine was repainted, also some of the details are different), whereas the system says it happened this august and september-when my car was sitting on the driveway and not 500miles away somewhere in London.

So far I've contacted citizens advice and challenged the bus lane ticket online, but like I said haven't received a response yet, so when they do respond I hoped I would get some advice here how to prove my innocence or how to proceed.

Thank you for any kind of advice

TLDR: council keeps sending old violiations from previous user as current ones

 

[mwsx5]

Good possibility your car has been cloned, where someone puts your registration on a similar car and drives around.
Maybe worth doing a google search and see if anyone knows the best way to deal with it.

Mark


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[El Robo]

Thanks for the reply, yeah its a possibility, although my s4 is almost 11 years old now, so maybe not that popular to be cloned

Also that 0 pound fine across the letters makes me think its some kind of automated system sending me these letters.

The responsible council is yet to respond, all i have is their auto letter that they have received my objection to the charge....

 

[Rich76]

Does sound very much like someone has cloned your car it’s more common than you think , first thing to do is contact the police and inform them

 

[Terminator x]

Fined at £0?! New one on me.

TX.

Sent from my BBB100-2 using Tapatalk

 

[El Robo]

Allright so so far i've got 3 parking violiations at 0 pounds and 1 bus lane charge at 130 pounds

So today i've got another post that one of parking violiations was actually a warning (?????) with 0 pound charge and therefore is closed and all corespondence about it too (????).
Basically it sounds like they messed up and don't want to admit it. The date of this post is 23rd september, whereas the parking fine is dated as 7th of september while the contravention according to them happened on 6th of august?

Still no response about the bus lane charge

 

[El Robo]

UPDATE:

Went to the local police station to report a possible cloned plate, was basically told to contact the DVLA and they cannot help?

Got an email response about the bus charge, saying my objection has been rejected and until I prove its not my vehicle I either pay 65 pounds now or 130 pounds later.

So any advice what should I do? Pay the 65 now and write to the DVLA (since their webchat says thats the only correct way contact them), or not pay and continue this with DVLA until hopefully I prove my innocence, but I think that could take months.

 

[DieselJake]

That's rediculous! What happened to innocent until proven guilty; if they can't prove it's you how do they expect you prove it's not you.

The old violations are easy enough to write off as if they're prior to the v5 it's pretty obvious, in terms of the new stuff perhaps it's time for a private plate then whoever has cloned it will be a bit stuffed when the car comes up with nothing.

 

[Terminator x]

UPDATE:

Went to the local police station to report a possible cloned plate, was basically told to contact the DVLA and they cannot help?

Got an email response about the bus charge, saying my objection has been rejected and until I prove its not my vehicle I either pay 65 pounds now or 130 pounds later.

So any advice what should I do? Pay the 65 now and write to the DVLA (since their webchat says thats the only correct way contact them), or not pay and continue this with DVLA until hopefully I prove my innocence, but I think that could take months.

Lol I wonder why cloning is so popular then *rolls eyes*

Other then speeding fines it seems like the police care about nothing.

TX.

Sent from my BBB100-2 using Tapatalk

 

[Terminator x]

UPDATE:

Went to the local police station to report a possible cloned plate, was basically told to contact the DVLA and they cannot help?

Got an email response about the bus charge, saying my objection has been rejected and until I prove its not my vehicle I either pay 65 pounds now or 130 pounds later.

So any advice what should I do? Pay the 65 now and write to the DVLA (since their webchat says thats the only correct way contact them), or not pay and continue this with DVLA until hopefully I prove my innocence, but I think that could take months.

...

 

[El Robo]

Small update:

To those who said the license plate is cloned I apologize, you seem to be right.

At first I thought it was a clerical error but upon close examination I found some differences between mine and the car in the photos (central mirror being black, no chrome around the windows, windows not tinted etc.)

So i gathered as much of these differences as i saw, photographed my car and sent everything to the council hounding me. Well they should respond within 20 working days....

Besides that i've reported it as crime to the Metropolitan police, and the DVLA, although for whatever reason they insist on me sending a paper letter to them like its the 19th century.

Hopefully everything turns out allright, but I am utterly stunned how easy it is to clone a license plate here and the apathetic reaction of the police (humberside police just said they cannot help as its not a criminal charge?????).

In the short term I think I will have to order a personal plate:/

 

[Pinky1959]

If the police won't do anything about the cloned plates perhaps they would if it was not insured as I think this will be the case as the insurance companies surely would notice if two cars with same registration were insured ,If not contact DVLA and ask them .
I would report it as a possible driving with no insurance and write to the Chief Constable of the Met Police stating you are not at all happy and want this looked into .
Good Luck.

 

[El Robo]

Thanks, I think you are right, most likely they have no insurance so if stopped by police it should become clear (in addition to the VIN not matching)

Alas its been more than a week since I reported it to the London police, got an email saying they will send the info to the relevant district or whatever and that the license plate has been added to some kind of list. So ever since that email I haven't been stopped once! Maybe I simply haven't met any traffic police but still, if I haven't been stopped then I reckon the other idiot hasn't been either.

Also wrote to my insurance to explain the situation in case someone contacts them about hit and run or anything like that, and they were not of much help either, simply said that a note has been added to my policy.

 

[Dubjam]

Thanks, I think you are right, most likely they have no insurance so if stopped by police it should become clear (in addition to the VIN not matching)

Alas its been more than a week since I reported it to the London police, got an email saying they will send the info to the relevant district or whatever and that the license plate has been added to some kind of list. So ever since that email I haven't been stopped once! Maybe I simply haven't met any traffic police but still, if I haven't been stopped then I reckon the other idiot hasn't been either.

Also wrote to my insurance to explain the situation in case someone contacts them about hit and run or anything like that, and they were not of much help either, simply said that a note has been added to my policy.

Being added to a Police 'list' is a nightmare, a previous car I purchased for a friend was used by county lines drug gangs. She was getting stopped roughly twice a week after we bought it, ended up having to sell the motor to a dealer at a reduced value as the stress was becoming unbearable for her.

I hope you get it sorted, the Police seldom pull anyone down here, they have much bigger stuff to do, they rely on the millions of cameras to do vehicle stuff.

 

[El Robo]

Small update:

Well i've got some mail from the council that they have done an "investigation" and canceling my tickets.

After this event i've come to re-evaluate customizing your car and private plates as well (at least in UK). Having a big custom aftermarket radiator that can be seen clearly has saved my *** i guess (thanks previous owner!)

In conclusion: the current system where you can order plates with little to no control is absolutely insane. The apathy I received from police is even more depressing.

 

[steeve]

Get a personal plate or ask DVLA to change your current reg number.