Deadline: Is arrest first crack in wall of Victoria’s booming cloned number plate market

It’s a lucrative and booming criminal practice in Victoria, which can aid in anything from petrol drive offs to gangland hits.

Mark Buttler and Andrew Rule with the latest crime buzz.

Clone rangers take a hit

Criminals sniff out a dollar the way that rats find cheese. The booming market for cloned number plates is one such business opportunity.

Fake plates have played a part in some heavy Melbourne crimes in recent years, including homicides where they were fitted to avoid triggering police attention.

Among such cases was the murder of fruiterer Paul Virgona. His Mongol bikie assassins fitted the cloned number plates to a VW Amarok ute used as a getaway car before shooting him as he drove his van along the eastern freeway in late 2021.

The Amarok was an ideal vehicle to use in the early morning hours when thousands of tradies head to work in twin cabs, but alert police gave chase, forcing the suspects to dump it without torching it. This left forensic clues that would eventually help in the charging of two men.

The ute’s number plates (IMC 9PG) were excellent copies but when police checked they discovered what Herald Sun readers found that week after reporters traced the number to a similar Amarok in a Moorabbin car yard.

The hitmen used a car fitted with cloned number plates in a bid to throw police off their trail after murdering innocent suburban dad Paul Virgona. Picture: David Crosling

Meanwhile, number plate cloning is a growing practice which, at the lower end, involves people trying to avoid toll fees and speeding fines or to do fuel drive-offs from service stations. The cost to the public and to private enterprise from those pervasive rorts must run into millions of dollars a year.

The racket has been going on for at least a decade but it appears to have grown steadily more technically sophisticated.

Deadline has heard for years about criminals catering for this market with few being caught in the act. But last week a man was charged with manufacturing cloned plates to order for customers who use them to commit crimes.

It is alleged the 44-year-old from Frankston North was copying regos from vehicles being sold online.

He is accused of distributing the clones across the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula area.

The plates were put on stolen vehicles matching those in the online ads then used in local crimes and for burglaries around Cranbourne.

Cloning substantially lowers the risk of the stolen car being flagged by police because the plate will match the legitimate online vehicle which is not under suspicion.

Frankston police have charged the man with negligently dealing with the proceeds of crime, making a false document — and with possessing a drug of dependence, which underlines Deadline’s belief that nearly all crime is somehow drug-related.

That followed a raid on a home in Mahogany Avenue in Frankston North early on Thursday.

Investigators allegedly found false plates and equipment used to manufacture them, a laser-cutting printer, adhesives, number plate templates, tin and templates from completed plates.

And on Wednesday night, vehicle crime squad detectives seized 40 number plates as part of a vehicle rebirthing investigation.

A 35-year-old Doveton man was arrested as part of an inquiry which also involved members of the special operations group and fugitive squad.

The plates, along with a stolen Holden Commodore and cannabis, were seized from a factory in Fowler Rd, Dandenong.

As a wise man once said, if there is a demand there will be a supply.

Will the US really fall for NRL. Almost certainly not, but at least the players will have fun. Photo: Grant Trouville

Good to go

It is good to see the NRL back and ready to roll for round one in Las Vegas, something which must have been quite a relief to a great of the game.

He was recently overheard in a Melbourne Airport lounge joking that the number of players whose criminal records would preclude them from entering the United States would make it hard to field teams.

Ouch!

Based on that theory, we can think of a few rogue AFL players who might look at changing codes to embrace the more forgiving, knockabout culture of the NRL.

One candidate has just departed the Shinboners. There are others.

No shame

The reach of technology means the world is more infested with scammers than ever.

One of the favourites of these vermin is the fake unsolicited text that purports to be from a major corporation which is step one towards cleaning out those who respond.

A Deadline source recently decided to phone back a number which had been used to suck tens of thousands out of someone close to him.

A bloke with the educated-sounding English voice answered and, initially, seemed quite perturbed at what had happened.

“That does sound unusual. We’d better look into it. Have you got our mobile banking app?” the dodgy Englishman asked.

Our man in Melbourne said there was a simple solution to the whole mess.

“You could start by giving the money back,” he remarked.

Repentance? Not likely, old chap.

The money-back suggestion was greeted with laughter from the other end of the line as the shyster ended the charade and indicated he’s probably fleeced a hell of a lot of other people.

“I’ve only made five hundred thousand pounds on this one,” he said.

At this point, the karma bus appears to be the best chance of squaring up this situation.

DIY policing

Word reaches Deadline of some relaxed police work in a major country centre.

A man who had his expensive Giant racing bike stolen after thieves broke the lock with bolt cutters played detective and was able to work out where it (and others) were.

He went to the cops but when they got to the address, they were told the people there were running a bike repair business and so things went no further.

Frustrated, the Giant’s owner decided to take matters into his own hands and found the man he alleged had stolen it, restraining him in the hope of the cavalry in blue doing the rest.

Police didn’t arrive in time and the bike’s owner, unable to hold the thief forever, let him go.

We’re told the owner then went to the police and passed on the name of the bike thief, but this didn’t get any useful response.

“You got your bike back, don’t worry about it” was the tenor of the police reaction, our source says.

The alleged offender has since been seen rolling around town on another fancy new Giant bike that he has acquired by mysterious means.

Bikes are, of course, ideal transport for thieves, as there is no identifying number plate and the compulsory bike helmets and optional wraparound sunglasses make an effective disguise.

That is why one of the most merciless men in the land cruised around the inner suburbs on his treadley for a long time. Until, that is, police linked him to the massive Richmond Armaguard van heist of 1994, a conviction that has sentenced him to a few years away from the Yarra cycling paths.

Informed talk that the same man is also linked to at least three unsolved fatal shootings underlines the fact that motorists and pedestrians should be careful with cyclists. You never know exactly who they might be.