Hefty tolls, fines left for victims as crim’s nab licence to steal

Criminals are leaving a trail of fines and toll bills for hundreds of motorists as they replicate licence plates to use during crime sprees. Here’s how to prevent it happening to you.

Hundreds of motorists have had their number plates cloned by crafty criminals who often go on crime sprees leaving victims to cop the trail of fines and toll bills.

New figures released by the Department of Transport and Main Roads reveal 302 vehicle owners had to be issued with replacement license plates after their registrations were illegally cloned between July 2019 and November last year.

Authorities say offenders will replace the plates of their own vehicle with those of a similar make or model to evade speeding fines, take part in fuel drive offs and more serious criminal behaviour.

Brisbane mum of three Karley Acworth, 34, unknowingly became an easy target for the fraudsters when she posted a photograph of her Black Lexus – that showed her number plates – on Gumtree in November last year.

It was not until she received a call from police that she became aware that somebody was driving around with a paper clone of her plates.

Lo and behold, two weeks later she received a $275 speeding fine and had accrued $90 in tolls.

“At least I was lucky enough that police called me and told me because otherwise that car could have been driving around racking up fines,” Ms Acworth said.

Ms Acworth, who runs a disability and mental health support service, said she did not have to pay the fines.

But the ordeal had been a “nightmare” as she spent hours on the phone to the toll company and was not able to drive the car while the other vehicle was at large.

“I had to go down to the station and make a statement and show them photos of my real car with my real plates to prove that mine was the real one,” she said.

“So it was really just a massive inconvenience and being on the phone so much to Toll and filling out the stat dec for the fine, going to Transport and getting new plates, it was a huge waste of my time.”

Ms Acworth urged motorists to keep their eyes peeled for dodgy plates.

“Just be mindful and when you are driving around if you do think a number plate looks suspicious, absolutely call and report it because it could save someone an absolute nightmare,” she said.

Queensland Police said cloning offenders often trawl the internet to source photos of plates.

The Courier Mail has also been told of instances where offenders drive to shopping centres to take photographs of vehicles.

“Offenders will find photographs of similar cars, and their number plates, by searching social media or car sales websites,” a police spokeswoman said.

“These images are then used to clone number plates. To avoid the risk of your number plate being cloned, it is important not to share your number plate online.”

A Department of Transport and Main Roads spokesman said in the past financial year there had been 128 number plates replaced.

“There are currently more than 5.7 million registered vehicles in Queensland indicating plate cloning is not a widespread issue,” he said.

The Department said the fine for having a fake number plate on your car or in your possession was $320.

The maximum penalty for people who produce fake plates was more than $5,000.

TMR can issue free replacement number plates while a cloned plate is investigated.

“TMR and QPS have a range of measures in place to detect and minimise the risk of fake plates being used,” the spokesman said.

“For example, since 2020, Queensland number plates have incorporated directional security marks to assist with the detection of fake number plates.”