Fact Check: Registration of Liverpool crash vehicle cited inaccurately on social media
Incorrect license plate details for the car driven into crowds of Liverpool soccer fans have been cited as evidence online to baselessly infer the May 26 incident was a 'false flag' attack.
Almost 80 people were injured when the Ford Galaxy, opens new tab ploughed into a celebratory parade being held in the city centre for Liverpool's Premier League title victory.
Merseyside Police later charged 53-year-old Liverpudlian Paul Doyle with seven offences including dangerous driving and two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
On social media, however, X and Facebook posts, opens new tab that claimed to have figured out the car's registration number said there was no record of it in the UK's vehicle database, which is maintained by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
The posts show a screenshot of a search on the DVLA file for 'DC18DPW' which returned zero results.
'The car that was involved in the Liverpool incident cannot be found,' said an X post, opens new tab, saying this was evidence the crash was a 'false flag' operation by Britain's spy agency, further calling it 'An attack on it's own people.'
Reuters also searched the DVLA database for 'DC18DPW' and got the same result. However, this is not the correct registration number for the vehicle involved in the crash.
The publicly available photos, opens new tab and videos, opens new tab that show the car and its plates are low quality or angled.
However, the Metro newspaper, which published a witness video, opens new tab with a clear view of the car's rear plate and intentionally blurred it for publication, shared the unedited footage with Reuters via email.
The unedited footage shows the registration number cited on social media is incorrect.
A record for a grey Ford, the same make said by police to have ploughed into the crowd, appeared when Reuters searched the correct registration number in the DVLA database.
Merseyside Police and the Home Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
DVLA declined to comment.
False. The registration number said in social media posts to be on the Ford Galaxy's plate is incorrect. Reuters viewed the correct registration number in a clear video of the car that was supplied by a witness to Metro. The DVLA database has a record for a Ford vehicle under the correct registration number.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.
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