A shock in the post this morning

[® Andy]

So for a second this morning I was excited when I saw a letter from "Criminal Justic Department" - thought I was going to get to do some Jury service. However, was shocked when I opened the letter to find a Notice of Intended Prosecution for a speeding offence somewhere in the Greater Manchester area. Reason for the shock - I live in Southampton and on the date/time in question my car was parked on my drive at home several hundred miles away from point of the offence.

Of course next thing I went and did was go and (re-)check my VR5 against my cars VIN - everything matches. Only thing left Ive never done before is check the engine number - so first question is can somebody tell me where the engine number is on a 172? The owners manual is useless since it shows loads of engines but not a 172.

Already been onto the Central Ticket Office folk in Manchester and they say I should return the Notice with a covering letter etc..

Anyhow, other questions to the collective wisdom are :


Anybody else ever received a Notice in error? Is this likely an adminstrative error? When I asked them on the phone they wouldnt comment!
Anybody else been screwed by somebody cloning their registration? Always lots of discussion about how we shouldnt post full registrations - countered by people saying that you "should" need a VR5 for the vehicle to get a new plate - countered again by people who said they didnt when the got theirs made up the other week.

 

[boyracer666]

may not 2 a notice of error

there is a type of car crime around where they spot ur car, copy ur plate and stick it on aidentical car and u get the fines. i had this and the police r aware of the problem but its hard 2 catch them unless they r stopped by police

i had 2 take pics of my car etc etc, ne identifying features. also if u have a gb sticker or england sticker on ur plate it is likely they did not copy it and thats ur proof which is wot i used

Jamie

 

[Kelly]

Yea, its called car cloning. Same car as yours, same colour but they have copied your number plate. Get onto the Police asap

 

[® Andy]

Already been out and taken photos of my car ... close up of number plate, Cliosport sticker in the back window etc.. Just hope that the photographic evidence is of high enough quality to show the differences!?

 

[® Andy]

boyracer666 - do you keep getting problems coz of this other cloned car?

 

[boyracer666]

no i dont actually-my dad spotted it near me and i got a tiket once but i sent photos of my car showing differences and they added the plate 2 their list.

i now have a personal plate so technically my old plate is bin scrapped from the dvla database so i spose if nething is caugh on camera they kno straight away

 

[VR6man]

someone at work last week got exactly the same thing....

i.e their car was at home but apparently speeding some distance away...

the police have since sent a letter saying "oops we got it wrong" but havent clarified what exactly happened....

 

[Ben P]

My mate had the police come round to his house and threaten to arrest him unless he paid for a full tank of petrol. They alleged he had filled up then driven off without paying, which was complete rubbish.

Luckily he could prove he had been at work at the time of the offence. They said someone had obviously copied his plates as they had another car the same as his on CCTV footage

 

[Swervin_Mervin]

My mums written off clio was caught speeding a couple of times, and parking illegally. It was the DVLAs fault as they had never updated their records to reflect that it was no longer registered to her.

Happened a couple of times and involved lots of too-ing and fro-ing between the police and the DVLA

 

[Nick Read]

Theyre a bunch of lazy arseholes. Just tell them the situation and to drop the case immediately or prove in court that it was you driving and that it was your vehicle. Which they cant do.

 

[chris172]

Happened to me too. Someone has to transpose the registration from the camera film into the computer....usually done by one of the Beverley Hillbillys... and typed the wrong reg in which is what happened to me!!

I rang them and they looked at the film and admitted their mistake.

Mine was in Bolton...and I live in Northampton and was on holiday in Spain!!!

Muppets!!!!

 

[edde]

So all you have to get of speading fines from the Gatsoes is to add some stickers and mud guards on your car and send the photos of your car in as proef that it couldnt have been your car as your car has mudguards and stickers?

EDD

 

[Louise]

yes I have recieved one of these in error... Apparently I was driving in Bristol, and I hadnt been there for months. I wrote a note on the form saying it cant have been my car, and a few weeks later, I recieved a response saying they were sorry, and a mistake had been made, and the NIP was dropped.

 

[king.stromba]

Quote: Originally posted by edde on 06 August 2003


So all you have to get of speading fines from the Gatsoes is to add some stickers and mud guards on your car and send the photos of your car in as proef that it couldnt have been your car as your car has mudguards and stickers?

EDD


Good point. Would it work?

 

[007]

Got to be worth a try if its over 100mph!