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Civil penalty charge notices (Councils, TFL and so on) / Re: TfL (+ private) notices for car with cloned number plates
« on: April 17, 2026, 02:07:54 pm »
Thanks for your quick replies. The incidents all occurred within the space of 3-4 hours on the morning of 1st April. Notices were issued on the 8th and received by us on 13th. We are going to get in touch with Met and Kent Police with the advice you've pointed us at. I agree the reporting path for cloned plates is not straightforward (I've gone through the initial questions and nothing stands out as the obvious choice to pick).
I need to take a better photo of the back of the car to match the PCN from TfL, but my wife is at work today so I will do this tomorrow.
I can already tell from the photo TfL sent, heavily grainy as it is, that the number plate on the rear of the clone car is in an enclosed recess (barely larger than the plate). On my wife's car, there is a lip across the rear of the car, above the plate, but no recess. I think this will be obvious when I get a straight on pic of the car.
We already used the link on TfL's website to challenge the notice a few days ago, which we could submit photos with but nothing else. We received an e-mail from TfL this morning asking us to send any further evidence we have in the next 14 days, as quoted in my first post. For some reason they will only accept this by post, despite having e-mailed us.
The initial representation we sent was "I deny any liability or contractual agreement. In your notice, the photographic evidence provided is of a car that does not match the vehicle I own. In order to resolve the dispute, I attach photos of my actual car. You will note that the colour is a dark charcoal grey, not the silver seen in your PCN, and the shape of the car is not the same. I believe my number plate has been cloned and attached to another vehicle. Reports are being made to the police and the DVLA."
I will redact the addresses from the PCN letters and upload to an image site soon.
I need to take a better photo of the back of the car to match the PCN from TfL, but my wife is at work today so I will do this tomorrow.
I can already tell from the photo TfL sent, heavily grainy as it is, that the number plate on the rear of the clone car is in an enclosed recess (barely larger than the plate). On my wife's car, there is a lip across the rear of the car, above the plate, but no recess. I think this will be obvious when I get a straight on pic of the car.
We already used the link on TfL's website to challenge the notice a few days ago, which we could submit photos with but nothing else. We received an e-mail from TfL this morning asking us to send any further evidence we have in the next 14 days, as quoted in my first post. For some reason they will only accept this by post, despite having e-mailed us.
The initial representation we sent was "I deny any liability or contractual agreement. In your notice, the photographic evidence provided is of a car that does not match the vehicle I own. In order to resolve the dispute, I attach photos of my actual car. You will note that the colour is a dark charcoal grey, not the silver seen in your PCN, and the shape of the car is not the same. I believe my number plate has been cloned and attached to another vehicle. Reports are being made to the police and the DVLA."
I will redact the addresses from the PCN letters and upload to an image site soon.