Number plate cloning, the British version of someone copying your license plate, is climbing fast. The UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) logged 11,394 reports of cloned plates in 2025. That’s up 9% on the year before and 54% higher than in 2020. In London alone, penalty notices canceled because of cloning rose from 22,450 in 2021 to 36,794 in 2023, according to a BBC investigation.
A camera that only checks one thing
Britain leans heavily on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras. More than 18,000 of them make around 90 million plate reads a day, and every one of those reads assumes the plate is genuine. They enforce speed limits, bus lanes, low-emission zones and London’s congestion charge, and every fine is mailed automatically to the registered keeper of the plate the camera reads.
That’s where cloning comes in. A criminal finds a car that matches theirs in make, model and color, often from an online sales listing. They have a set of plates made up with that car’s registration and bolt them on. From then on, every camera that spots them bills the real owner.
Jon Kirkbright, Sales Director at RegHunters, one of the UK’s largest DVLA-recognized plate suppliers, says the system is working exactly as designed, and that’s the problem.
“Every one of those cameras is doing its job perfectly. It reads the plate, matches it to a name and sends the bill. The trouble is, the plate is the only thing it checks, and anyone can get one made.”
Why the plates are so easy to get
Around 34,000 businesses are registered to sell number plates in Britain, and getting registered costs a one-off £40, roughly $50. The plates themselves carry no holograms, chips or watermarks. The British Number Plate Manufacturers Association has told lawmakers that the UK and Ireland are the only countries in Europe without security features in their plates.
How victims find out
There’s no alert and no database to check. Most people discover the problem when a parking ticket arrives from a town they’ve never visited, or a speeding notice is timed while their car sat in the driveway. Others hear from debt collectors over unpaid fuel, or from police asking where they were on a particular day.
“We’re taking two or three calls a day from people in this position,” says Jon. “Some of them are dealing with half a dozen different councils at once, each with its own appeals process.”
The strongest evidence is usually the camera image itself. Cloners copy the basics, but wheels, roof racks, trim and dents rarely match. Owners who keep dated photos of their own car from every angle have a much easier time proving the difference.
Getting back on track
The advice from police and the trade is consistent. First, report the cloning to the police and get a crime reference number, because every appeal depends on it. Next, notify the DVLA and tell your insurer. Then answer every penalty notice in writing before its deadline, even the ones that look ridiculous. In the UK, ignoring a speeding notice can lead to prosecution for failing to name the driver.
“Speed matters,” Jon says. “The sooner you get a crime reference number and start answering notices, the less of a mess you’re left to untangle.”
The final step is the one many victims overlook: moving the car onto a new registration. The cloned plate stays out there, but it no longer leads back to the owner.
“A fresh registration is the closest thing to a clean slate,” says Jon. “The old number is still on someone else’s car, but it stops pointing at you.”
The checkered flag
Until British plates get the kind of security that protects a credit card, cloning looks set to keep rising. For now, the best defenses are simple: blur your plate in any photo you post online, fit tamper-resistant screws, open every letter promptly and act the moment something doesn’t add up.
For a deeper look at cloned, ghost and stealth plates, RegHunters has published a full guide to number plate cloning.
