I'm annoyed and worried, both my plates were taken off my car this weekend...and I can only think that the reason someone would do that is they've got a sprint blue coupe and they want me to pick up the speeding/parking/armed robbery tickets that they are planning.

Am I being paranoid?

Should I bother reporting this to the police or will they have no interest....

If anyone sees a sprinty with S8**ECD newly appearing in your area (outside of London SE7) let me know!

I dont think you're being paranoid at all, i would be really annoyed if that happened to my car, what a nasty thing to do I would contact the police and the DVLA and let them know your plates have been stolen.

Def contact police ASAP...if for no other reason than to cover your ass should you find anything untoward happens

Then once they know, get some new plates made up and go set off as many speed cameras as you can.

call the police, they will log it on the database and any car with them plates will be pulled. its a pain in the ass as you will be pulled a fair few times,

but it will catch the other person out

Write and let DVLA know about this too, that covers you for any parking/driving violations that may come through, telling the police only covers you for criminal activity and dosen't stop the DVLA from issuing a summons - been there, have the t-shirt.

Thanks Chaps, Plod have been informed, and I'll write to the DVLA too.

Strangely, on Friday I got an email from the council offering tamperproof screws....should have taken that as a sign

Maybe the council have the plates then

You def need to report it now - don't wait until you get a ticket or the police will want to know why you failed to report it before. You could find your plate ending up on a car involved in a more serious crime

They steal the plates then put them on an identical car and drive round uninsured etc... drive off without paying for fuel, parking, speeding, gang related 'tings etc...

And yes YOU will get the ste for it - safeguard yourself and tell all the relevant people - maybe even your insurers - ?

Happened to my girlfriend a couple of years ago - we informed Plod and DVLA, never heard anything more, no tickets, ram raids etc.

TBH I'm surprised someones would steal plates from a coupe - its not exactly a common car.... (the gf has a black golf!)

Bet they've cloned the car.

I cant understand why they have been stolen.
They only need to write the number down and get a set of plates made ,no?
Its law here to have the plates riveted on,and you have to have you,re logbook with you when ordering new plates.
Perhaps it would be wise to rivet them on in the U.K.

Are you sure they haven't just fell off

On a serious note I actually ordered these the other day which would help --> Special Screws

Got them to stop any cheeky buggers attempting to steal these ---> Special Plates

Saying that I live in a fairly decent area but its better to be safe than sorry!

If they order a new set, there will be some records that they've been done (Maybe not great records, but some would exist). If they steal a set, there's no record anywhere.

Interestingly, I saw a Banana Coupe in a car park in Sandy for about 3-4 weeks, with no plates on. I wonder if there's a spate of this, and there's some sort of con going on. I'd keep a close eye on the 'Coupe Spotting' thread to see if it turns up !

I friend of mine, had his plates cloned from his mistubishi GTO. Recieved various parking fines and fines for jumping lights, all in London!

He lives over a 100 miles away, out in the sticks in Dorset.

About 15 years ago my uncle was driving his white cavalier through his town, when he noticed that the white cavalier infront had the same number plates on (back in the days when there was no regulations on plates)

To make a long story short - they both went to the police to find out which car was illegal ( will the real cavalier please step forward!)

My Uncle's car was OK the other car had been sold as a ringer.

2 years ago I bought a new citroen. (yes I know, insert insult here .....)

One day I had a puncture and had to call the RAC to tow it to a garage (they don't make room for or supply spare wheels any more!!) for a new tyre.
When the operator tried to confirm my details via the registration number, it became clear that the number plate supplied when the car was new was incorrect!.

Infact my car was registered to a citroen in London and I live in Wales!!!

So I had been driving around in a stealth machine for a whole year and didn't know it

I later found that a whole batch of vehicles registered that week were on incorrect plates!!

At least they offered to supply me new one FOC.

So what did I learn?

A) Check the documents always match the plates (and VIN ETC)

B) Don't buy a citroen !

TBH I wonder as to the intellect of people who steal plates to clone a car with.

It's pretty obvious that the owner of the original car will realise, and notify the relevant authorities, meaning that the clone car will get pulled, or at least noticed, as soon as it goes past any ANPR system.

Surely the thing to do would be to spend a few quid on getting a copy of the 'donor' car plates made up, cheap and easily availabe on line, so that the original owners are none the wiser?


Quite an effective form of harrasment though, stealing plates, as not only do you piss off the owner, who'll have to get new ones, but then (as mentioned), after the owner has reported it, they'll spend the next few months constantly getting pulled over.....

To the OP, hope you get it all sorted fairly quickly, and it'll give you an interesting insight as to how effective your local plod are, by the amount of times you get pulled!

all the chavs round here steal number plates off any car they can and then stick them on which ever car they are driving, so that they can drive into petrol stations, fill up, then drive off.. then stash the plates up.

so deffo let the police know asap!

LOL, the partner of a girl I work with bought a new car - he drove if for three months before being pulled by the police

He gave his reg and the policeman told him it was incorrect - turns out the front and rear plates were different!

How anyone could drive around for three months without noticing this is beyond me!