Colum Mylod wrote:
1 in 250 was the rate quoted in a newspaper whose title escapes me at
the moment. That is a high value if true. It's possible the clones are
using similar car makes to the victims' original too which presents a
major problem for the innocents:

Yes, that is how it works. It means you can avoid ANPR in police cars
too, assuming the car you've cloned is okay as far as the DVLA is
concerned.

If you used any plate, it would stand out if the police (or Capita) did
any manual checks.

The other trick, more common now (an increase of 2000%) is bringing
your foreign registered car from another EU state and never
re-registering it here even after many years have passed. We've got
loads of Polish cars on our estate (but that's just as it is here, it
certainly isn't isolated to just one country), many which are in no way
roadworthy. They get no hassle at all. Nor will they get tickets,
speeding penalties or anything else. In fact, while they probably need
third party insurance if they ARE stopped, they don't need an MOT or
road tax either.

You can't just blame the 'foreigners within the EU', because a car
magazine highlighted how easy it is for any Brit to do the same. I'm
sure a lot of foreign cars over here are owned by people using them to
avoid detection. In fact, in many ways I can see why I might want to do
it myself until honesty kicks in.

And the Government still thinks a camera in a box and plastic police on
the ground is the way forward?

Jonathan