Rise of cloned plates used in violent crimes
It’s a sneaky tactic reserved by crims to help commit some of the most serious crimes, and you might not even know you’re a victim of this brazen scheme — until police knock on your door.
Police & Courts
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Black market cloned number plates are being sold for up to $200 in a racket being exploited by high-level criminals.
The Herald Sun has been told cloned plates are used in armed robberies, drive-by shootings, ram-raids and other serious crimes — including the EastLink Freeway murder of fruiterer Paul Virgona.
And Crime Statistics Agency figures show the overall rate of number plate crime — including cloning offences — is running at a rate higher than 50-a-day statewide.
More than 20,000 number plates were stolen from October 2018 to September 2019, compared with 12,964 in the same period in 2014-15.
The cloned fakes are now of such a high quality that they are indistinguishable from the real thing.
“Unless you walk up and feel it, you wouldn’t know,” a source said.
Senior police say there is evidence plate cloning, and crimes enabled by it, are rising. Those making the plates use online ads to find cars to match ones they have stolen.
The stolen car then does not show up as stolen if checked by police or automatic number plate recognition technology.
Stolen vehicles with cloned plates were used in the November murder of Mr Virgona.
The thieves took the rego for a Volkswagen Amarok from an online advertisement then made duplicate plates to put on a stolen vehicle of the same model.
In December, seven sets of cloned number plates were found at Endeavour Hills by police investigating a major gun and drug trafficking operation.
Toll and traffic infringements are routinely sent to legitimate vehicle owners, who must then prove they were not responsible for a fine or charge.
There have been cases of police arriving at owners’ homes about crimes that their vehicle was involved in.
Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill said cloning and theft of number plates was usually at the centre of more serious crimes.
“Stolen and cloned number plate details are often used by offenders to hide the identity of a vehicle when committing other crimes such as burglaries, ram-raids, petrol drive offs, toll evasion and to evade police,” Mr Hill said.
He said police were working closely with the Department of Transport, Department of Justice and Community Safety, VicRoads and other agencies to improve plate security.
He said that Monash University Accident Research Centre had conducted research that identified options for better security.
Spokesman for the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce, David Dowsey, said the industry was very aware of the problem.
He said some companies used one-way screws to prevent physical thefts but it was still unclear how many people were using online methods.
“It is a serious problem,” Mr Dowsey said.
“A lot of number plate theft is connected to fuel … People will put on fake plates to avoid paying $80.
“What the VACC is asking is for authorities to share number plate data.
“If they have that information the plates can be scanned and operators can be alerted if the plate is stolen.”
The problem has become so common that the Victoria Police Vehicle Crime Squad approached carsales.com.au to find solutions for cloning.
Cars on the website’s listing page now have the first number on their plates blurred, and the company has said it would blur registrations on other parts of the site in future.
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