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Daily Mail
39 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
This part of YOUR car has become incredibly desirable to criminals in the last three years with thefts up 68%
There is one part of your car that's become so desirable to organised crime gangs that reported thefts have soared by 68 per cent in the last three years. It is one of the easiest and fastest components on your vehicle to remove, either by brute force or with a Phillips screwdriver, which makes it an incredibly easy target for thieves. And because it's among the cheapest parts to replace, thefts often go unreported as victims of this type of crime often just spend another £15 to replace them. But while they might appear inexpensive to drivers, to OCGs, fuel thieves and other serial motoring offenders they have become invaluable for effectively evading authorities and to allow them to continue engaging in criminal activity at arm's length of the police. The item in question is your car's number plate. According to a new report, over 5,600 drivers last year reported to the DVLA that theirs had been pinched from their vehicle. This is up from 3,370 in 2021. And almost twice as many motorists informed the agency that they believed their registrations plate had been cloned - a rise of 41 per cent over the same three-year period. This is because criminals are increasingly seeking out false number plates to evade ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) and CCTV cameras used to enforce our streets. Motor insurer Churchill issued a freedom of information request to the DVLA regarding the volume of stolen and cloned plates reported to the agency in the last four years. Some 5,683 drivers in 2024 told the agency their plates had been removed from their vehicles. A further 10,461 also contacted the government department to say they believed their car's plates had been cloned, having received penalty charges in the post or been contacted by police about offences they haven't committed. But these numbers are just the tip of an iceberg. This is because not all drivers notify the DVLA when they've had their plates taken or believe they've been duplicated by criminals. The AA says that around 25,000 to 30,000 motorists per year tell the police their plates have been pinched off their cars. And these numbers are rising, according to other reports. A Direct Line study in 2022 suggested that 53,000 people told UK police forces that their number plates had been removed from their motors the year previous. Another reason vehicle identity theft has become so prevalent is the ease in which criminals can obtain fake plates, with online retailers often not requiring proof of vehicle ownership before shipping a new pair to a customer. This means gangs can roam the streets to find similar vehicles to the one they're using - ideally of the same make, model and colour - to replicate the number plate. Another common tactic is to scour used car ads, filtering by the generation of vehicle and paint colour, to find one that's almost exactly the same, then duplicate the registration plate. However, because number plate theft is often not reported, the volumes nicked could be far higher - and, as such, statistics are difficult to obtain and often inaccurate. Victims of this type of crime should always inform both the police and the DVLA not only to report the offence but also safeguard themselves in the future. When reporting to the police, drivers are issued a crime reference number. This number will be needed to challenge any future penalty charges or offences linked to the vehicle carrying your plates or duplicated versions. But while it is correct protocol to also notify the DVLA, not every driver does so. Those who do contact the agency are likely seeking a replacement registration number to avoid a string of fines and speeding tickets arriving through the letterbox or knocks on the door from officers until the offenders with your plates are caught - if they are snared at all. For this reason, the numbers quoted to Churchill are not likely giving the full picture. Motorists who believe their plates have been pinched or cloned should also contact their insurer immediately. Nicholas Mantel, head of Churchill Motor Insurance, said the sharp rise in number plate cloning and theft is a 'worrying trend' that 'causes significant stress for innocent drivers'. He says victims will often 'face lengthy processes to prove their innocence and challenge fines issued in their name'. Motorists can take the security of their number plates into their own hands by fixing them with special tamper-proof screws. These can cost as little as £2.50 from Halfords, with Mantel saying they can be an 'effective theft deterrent'. Halfords sells 'theft resist' screws for number plate fixing for £2.49. Nicholas Mantel, head of Churchill Motor Insurance, says they can be an effective theft deterrent Why is number plate theft and cloning on the rise? The rise in number plate thefts and clones is the result of the shift to camera-based enforcement of our streets. As officer numbers continue to be slashed, our roads are increasingly being policed by ANPR cameras to catch offenders in the act. They're now used to police bus lanes infringement, drivers overstaying in car parks, speeding offences, yellow-box junction transgressions, and enforcement of low-emission zones and low-traffic neighbourhoods. Those wanting to evade detection by these cameras to dodge fines are resorting to vehicle identity theft, either by physically stealing the plates off other motors, cloning another vehicle's registration number and letter combination, or modifying their own plates to avoid being caught. But number plate theft and cloning also has extremely strong links to OCGs who want to move around the country without being identified - and engage in other criminal activity in vehicles that are extremely difficult to track. One example of this is 'bilking' - the illegal act of stealing fuel from filling stations. According to the latest report from Forecourt Trader, an estimated £6.5million of petrol and diesel has been pilfered by thieves who have driven off without paying in the last five years. Data supplied by Vars Technology - one of the leading suppliers of filling station security systems in Britain - indicates that around 13 per cent of all forecourt 'drive-offs' involve motors using cloned number plates or fake registration number combinations. Of all the 131,000 fuel theft cases reported in the five-year period, 94 per cent were unsolved, with offenders escaping justice. A recent BBC investigation also suggested that the increase in ANPR enforcement has triggered a rise in number plate cloning in the capital. Based on a freedom of information request sent to all London councils last year, there has been a 64 per cent rise in fines being cancelled over three years linked to offenders using duplicated number plates. It found the number of cases rose from 22,450 in 2021 to 36,794 in 2023. Overall fines issued went up by 20 per cent over the same period, with some councils reporting that more than 1.5 per cent of all their traffic fines were linked to cloned vehicles. It also hinted that the expansion of London's ULEZ had sparked a rise in cloning instances. A freedom of information request to Transport for London revealed a 69 per cent rise in ULEZ fines being cancelled due to cloning in the five months following the zone's extension in August 2023. Prof Jonathan Grigg, an expert in paediatric respiratory and environmental medicine at Queen Mary University of London, told the BBC he believes there is a 'clear link' between the ULEZ expansion and the figures obtained by the BBC. 'It likely that the introduction of ULEZ has increased the number of cloning activities across London. One would imagine that people are trying to avoid paying the ULEZ charges by cloning their plates,' he said. According to the RAC Foundation, approximately one in 12 number plates is either obscured or damaged. However, others have reported that around one in 15 could be deliberately modified or altered for evasion purposes. I had my plates cloned - I was being sent speeding fines 18 months later Lou Calvert, 51, a product manager from Kent, has been a victim of vehicle identity theft. She was initially alerted to the fact when in 2019 she received a London Congestion Charge penalty letter in the post despite not driving in London on the day of the offence. She soon began receiving a stream of other London-based penalty notices for parking and other traffic offences. 'In total there were 10 penalty notices of some description across a number of different boroughs of London - some were for parking fines not paid, others for driving offences, for example driving in a bus lane or parking in residents parking.' Lou said she contacted the police, DVLA and issuing authorities to submit her evidence to have all the charges withdrawn. She told the Daily Mail this was a laborious task, having to provide evidence to each London borough separately. 'Initially the notices didn't have any photos included of the other car and so I had to prove that I couldn't have been in the place that these were taking place. 'I was told I was not able to use data from my work pass to show that I was in a different location at the time. So, I asked my manager to write a letter to confirm that I'd been in the office and therefore wasn't in the area where the offences were taking place. 'I also provided train ticket purchases to show that I wouldn't have been driving at the time. 'And then some of the charges started to include photos of the other car, which although it was the same make, model and colour as mine, I started to spot some small differences to my car. 'I created an evidence pack based on these photos to show the differences between the two cars.' After dealing with the initial fines, Lou said letters stopped. As such, she opted not to endure another logistical nightmare getting her number plates changed, assuming the offender had been caught or changed their plates again to avoid detection. 'However, 18 months later, I received a notice of prosecution from West Yorkshire police for speeding. 'Again, I had to provide evidence that it wasn't my car and so that was cancelled. 'I was advised that the details of my vehicle registration number may be circulated on police computer databases, and I didn't receive any other charges after that. 'I still don't know whether the offender was caught.'
Daily Mail
39 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Government confirms Plug-In Van Grant extension - how much can white van man save by going electric?
The Government's discounts for electric vans and trucks has been extended for business and fleet operators looking to transition to EVs. The Plug-In Van and Truck Grant extension arrives as part of Labour's £650million scheme to make it cheaper to buy EVs, which has also seen the introduction of the controversial Electric Car Grant. The grant, which already offer discounts of up to £2,500 for small vans, £5,000 for large vans, £16,000 for small trucks, and £25,000 for large trucks, were due to lapse but have been confirmed to remain until at least another two years. The Government says the exact levels for the 2026/27 financial year will be confirmed in due course. The electric van grants run alongside electric Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) grants. The Government's decision comes after UK battery-electric van registrations rose sharply in July, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), with a 72.6 per cent increase between July 2024 and 2025. However, electric vans account for just 8.8 per cent of total registrations in the year to date - well short of the 16 per cent required under rules imposed by the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Announcing the van and truck grant, Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood said: 'Extending these grants is another decisive step to power Britain's transition to cleaner transport while backing the industries that keep our economy moving, driving new investment in EVs and helping businesses cut costs and expand.' Off the back of July's SMMT data, the industry body said that the gap between the government-mandated sales targets and current uptake needs to be addressed and called for 'measures to boost operator confidence'. The 2026 market share for electric vans is projected at 13.7 per cent, which is well below the mandated target of 24 per cent. SMMT chief Mike Hawes said the extension of the grant will 'help increase zero emission uptake in the critical commercial vehicle sector, much of which faces the same end of sale date as the car market' but added that more measures were required to have a telling impaxted. 'One of the major barriers to adoption is affordability so this extension will reduce the initial cost of purchase which, together with the accelerated rollout of infrastructure, will help more operators make the switch,' he said. 'The next step must be more affordable energy so government can maximise the return on investment for both the environment and the economy.' Commercial transport is responsible for more than a third of CO2 emissions on UK roads, so it's seen as vital to reduce the emissions from vans and trucks. Vans are responsible for 16 per cent of road transport emissions. HGVs, a category including trucks, make up 19 per cent of domestic transport emissions. John Boumphrey, UK country manager at Amazon, said: 'We welcome the government's continued commitment to supporting the electrification of commercial fleets.' The EV van grant is being better received than the new Electric Car Grant that sees buyers of electric cars received either a £1,500 (lower band) or £3,750 (higher band) discount on certain 'sustainable' EV models. The Government's criteria for which manufacturers and models qualify as 'green' has left car makers and buyers scratching their heads, and the the way the Government is announcing models as fast as it can process applications, rather than just releasing one clear list, is attracting a lot of criticism. As of the 16 August when the most recent ECG qualifiers were announced - five models from Cupra, Volkswagen and Peugeot - no EVs have managed to pass the stringent Level 1 £3,750 grant. As such, dealers have reportedly been voicing the frustrations, dubbing the roll-out of the scheme 'shambolic', adding that it should have been far simpler than what he dubbed a 'typical government bureaucratic mess'.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Two lanes blocked on A1(M) after vehicle fire in Cambridgeshire
Two lanes have been closed on a motorway after a vehicle fire. Emergency services were called to the A1(M) southbound between junction 15 and junction 14, near Sawtry and Alconbury in Cambridgeshire on Tuesday. Two of four lanes were closed while emergency services dealt with the incident. National Highways said it expected the incident to be cleared by 08:15 BST. Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
