Something happend to me a few years ago..
I was woken up at very early hours by a very loud knock on the door, wondered what the hell was going on! Looked out the window first, and saw a police car parked outside!! sh*t!! What the feck had I done now rushed through my mind!! F+ck!! F+ck!! (I had only been in trouble once in my life with the Police, and that was just a few weeks before this! and here they are again!)
Opened the door, and they ask for me!!! ...its like 5am!! Not knowing what the hell was going on! I asked whats happened?! They wouldnt tell me, but wanted to know what car I had, and where it was? I told them it was in the garage! They asked me to take them straight to the car! I knew this was something really bad, as theres no way they would be here at this time getting me out of bed for no reason and Im still hardly dressed!
One of them went straight to the tax disk, and checked it...then got on his radio and started saying Yes, we have the car... it is now in our possession! WTF!! What the hell they want with my car?
I get marched back to the house, and they would not leave my side at all, and told me to get my shoes as I was being taken in for questioning!????
I was sh*tting myself, and honestly thought it was Jeremy Beadle or something! Then within a few minutes, they had a radio call and came back to me to say they had found the car they were looking for apparantly!! They then told me VERY briefly that...The same car, same colour, identicle, same plates was involved in an armed Robery that night and my car had been identified as the car they used!! BSTADS used my car identity! Then the Police went away!
After saying this, theres not much you can do to prevent them copying your plates if your just out driving around, but I still cover my plates on the web from now on anyway just out of principle.