Potential cloned plates / what to do next?

Chucky1234

Hi all. I am experiencing an issue with my car.

Timeline of events:

I receive a text off my insurance company saying an incident has reported on my account and to contact them immediately on a number they provided. I initially thought it was a scam so contacted their main customer service line and they confirmed that an incident has indeed been reported and its not a scam.

They advised that the police have contacted them with my policy number, registration number, make, model and colour of vehicle to say that my car had been recovered to one of their compounds. My car was still on my drive so I had to go through various checks to prove to the insurance company it's not true, and they have closed down the incident. They also advised me to contact the police to see what information they had.

I contacted my local police force and she said she couldn't find any logs with my registration and to contact the insurance company again to try and get a name or any further information about who reported it to them.

I contact the insurance company and he said all they have is that is what a police compound which contacted them but he said it doesn't say which compound, however, he said it was definitely legit as they regularly get reports come through from police compounds.

I contacted the police again to tell them this and she advised that she can only check the compounds in my area, and if it was another area nothing would show up for her. She advised me to contact my insurance company AGAIN to ask them to investigate.

I feel like I am going round in circles and just being referred back to eachother. I am going to write to the DVLA when I get home to advise them of potential cloned plates.

The insurance company and police both think either the compound has read the registration wrong, however this would mean the car would have to be virtually the same as mine bar 1 digit in the registration or there has been a car stolen which has been recovered on my plates, either way, I want to find out what has happened.

I'd be interested to hear your guys thoughts on this. What should I do next? Anyone else I should contact? Anything which I should look out for? Any other ideas as to what could've happened?

Thank you :beer:

Fat_Walt

Contact the police, get them to check the PNC with your registration. There should be a removed report for the recovery of the vehicle. By doing that you maybe able to establish whether there is a cloned vehicle or an error with someone recording the registration number.

AdrianC

TBH, if it really is a cloned plate - rather than simply a mistake - then it sounds like it's resolved itself anyway. I'd not sweat it, but just make a note of the details for if you get anything else come through. If you do, then it'll be in fairly short order.

I'd not worry too much about whether everything's absolutely as per your car - it's quite likely that the colour/make/model have all come from a look-up of the reg, in the same way as your insurer and policy number did. Digits and transpositions apart, does your plate have any letters that could easily be misheard?

Chucky1234

She did check the PNC the first time I called the police and she said there was nothing on there with my registration, not sure what else this tells us.

There are not any letters or numbers which could easily be misheard in my opinion.

Thanks for the replies

Nasqueron

When I registered my car the dealer had 3 reg plates in a row like ABC ABD ABE - not impossible to be one digit along and have the same car if it's a popular model

Chucky1234

I do have a popular model and the car I have only comes in two colours which makes it more likely, but still unlikely in my opinion.

Fat_Walt

Chucky1234 wrote: »

She did check the PNC the first time I called the police and she said there was nothing on there with my registration, not sure what else this tells us.

There are not any letters or numbers which could easily be misheard in my opinion.

Thanks for the replies

She'll only have checked on #VE and not the history.

Chucky1234

Fat_Walt wrote: »

She'll only have checked on #VE and not the history.

Okay. Will get her to look when I finish work. Can you tell me what the #VE is please? Had a google and couldn't find anything.

angrycrow

Very odd situation. In nearly two decades in insurance claims the total number of times I have seen an impound yard notify an insurer they have a car on site is zero. Firstly how would the impound know who the insurers were as they should not have access to the MID database. The owner of the car would still need to give authority for the insurer to remove the car from the impound.

Clearly something is very amiss here.

If OP does find out his registration has been cloned and can get the police to confirm this in writing DVLA will normally provide a new registration for OPs car free of charge.

Chucky1234

angrycrow wrote: »

Very odd situation. In nearly two decades in insurance claims the total number of times I have seen an impound yard notify an insurer they have a car on site is zero. Firstly how would the impound know who the insurers were as they should not have access to the MID database. The owner of the car would still need to give authority for the insurer to remove the car from the impound.

Clearly something is very amiss here.

If OP does find out his registration has been cloned and can get the police to confirm this in writing DVLA will normally provide a new registration for OPs car free of charge.

I did think it was quite odd. When I contacted the insurance company to see if I could find out a name to who contacted them he said something along the lines of this;

'It just says police pound. It doesn't even say which pound it is, just that is a police pound. We do get regular reports to tell us which cars have been recovered.'

He also said they had included my policy number to.

When I was on the phone to the police I did question whether it was normal policy for the police to contact my insurer and not contact the owner (me) and she said they would contact the insurance company but they would also write to me. Weird.

Le_Kirk

Chucky1234 wrote: »

Okay. Will get her to look when I finish work. Can you tell me what the #VE is please? Had a google and couldn't find anything.

I think it is supposed to be LIVE.