Motorists are at risk of having their vehicle number plates cloned by criminals, resulting in a legal nightmare for the victims.
The cloned plates can be picked up by road surveillance systems such as speed cameras, resulting in fines and other charges that are directed to the original owner.
What to be aware of
When a licence plate is cloned, the onus falls on the legitimate owner to prove their innocence.
This is according to Law For All managing director Jackie Nagtegaal, who explained that motorists can “commit crimes” without their knowledge.
The issue was recently highlighted on CapeTalk, where a caller talked about his experience with someone copying his car’s plates.
The individual, going by the pseudonym “Peter,” alleged that his car’s plates were cloned and that several traffic fines had accumulated on his account as a result.
He knows that the fines are not his because the speeding tickets include photographic evidence of the incident, showing a car that is not his own.
Peter drives a Hyundai Tucson, while the vehicle photographed in the fines is a silver Mercedes-Benz, making it obvious that it could not have been the same car.
The caller went on to explain that he had received four separate fines ranging from R800 to R1,000.
The first three charges resulted in a combined fee of R2,400. However, when he went to query these fines at the traffic department, he discovered a fourth charge for another R1,000.
Peter said he had yet to receive this fourth fine “because the traffic department won’t release any details about the fine.”
The R1,000 ticket came up in a search results summary while he was filling out the documents for the first three fines, with only a vague description about a “verification rejected, safety cam.”
Peter has been unable to obtain any further information on this last fine.
“I have no idea what that is and it’s a different number to what you would normally register your traffic fines under. There’s no court date. No information. All that’s on here is my licence plate,” he said.
Peter duly approached the police station after receiving a notice to appear in court for the traffic infringements, where he tried to lay a charge for identity theft.
“I showed them all the documents I have – pictures of the vehicle. The police officer told me that it should be reported at the nearest police station where the crime occurred,” he said.
“It happened on the N1. Must I go to the nearest police station where the camera was on the N1?”
Peter also claimed that the Motor Vehicle Recovery Unit, which is meant to investigate this type of crime, appears to be “non-existent.”
“When I went there the second time, the person that takes the general enquiries said to me, I’ll have to go to court to prove my case.”
Peter has tracked down the car with the fraudulent plates, but is unsure of how to proceed from here.
A serious problem
According to Matrix Vehicle Tracking, number plate cloning is a major problem that can result in a legitimate vehicle owner facing criminal charges for actions committed using the false identifier.
“Much like identity theft, cloning of a car’s registration plate means that a criminal can pass off your information and details as their own, and this has widespread consequences,” it said.
Law For All’s Nagtegaal warned that motorists can potentially face criminal charges for unpaid fines if enough time has elapsed, meaning that drivers can essentially “commit crimes” without their knowledge.
Outstanding fines can also block road users from applying to renew their vehicle licence disc, creating further problems for the original owner.
Motorists are advised to contact the Road Traffic Infringement Agency to deal with traffic notices accumulated by a fake plate.
Fines issued through the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) system must be resolved using its online query system.
Unfortunately, both approaches are likely to be a long and frustrating approach, said Nagtegaal.
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