Shelli Birkett, from Kent, was accused of causing a car crash in Liverpool – despite never having visited the city in her life. She’s just one of a growing number of victims of number plate fraud
A furious driver has spoken out after being accused of crashing her car in a city she’s never been to.
Shelli Birkett, from Herne Bay in Kent, was sent a letter in the post telling her she had caused a major road collision in Liverpool – despite being 280 miles away at the time. She said she had “never been to Liverpool in my life” and that she “had to fight” to prove she hadn’t been in the city.
Now, Shelli has explained how she managed to convince police of her innocence after becoming one of thousands of victims of number plate fraud, which sees criminals copy or steal number plates to evade the law.
She said she had been “minding her own business at home” at the time of the crash – and said clearing her name had been a “scary” experience.
Ms Birkett told BBC South East: “I said it wasn’t me but they asked me to prove my whereabouts and to send photos of the condition of my car, and they continued to investigate. Then I remembered I could use my Google locations and luckily on that day I was in Herne Bay and I posted some videos on my business page on social media, proving I was at work that day.”
Thankfully, the case against her was closed was able to prove her location was not at the scene of the crime – but she was sent still letters from the insurance company’s lawyers demanding settlement money.
Number plate cloning involves copying a legitimate number plate and using it on another vehicle. It’s often used by criminals as a way to evade fines, congestion charges, or commit offences. This can lead to innocent drivers, like Shelli, receiving fines or being wrongly implicated in crimes, while making it harder for police to track down the culprits.
It’s on the rise, and figures show car owners received nearly 10,000 penalty notices in 2023 on vehicles they had no connection with. This was a 26% rise on the year before – and a staggering 689% increase from 2013. Drivers who suspect they may be the victim of number plate cloning should report it to the police and DVLA.
Chief Supt Rob Marsh from Kent Police told local media: “In relation to number plate thefts, people are clearly using them to commit other crimes such as whether it’s to avoid congestion charging, other road toll fees, whether it’s to do with making off without paying for fuel. With the increases in the cost of living that can sometimes be a reason for people to engage in criminality of this type. If someone wakes up in the morning, and their number plate is missing, they know they’ve been a victim of crime. If the number plate has, unbeknown to the victim been cloned, we’ve got to wait for it to trigger an ANPR camera linked to another incident and then it would come to our attention and we would then start our investigation.”
A spokesperson from the Home Office said: “The cloning and defacing of number plates affects road safety and provides cover for criminals. We are working with the police, the DVLA and other partners to crack down on these crimes. We began work on a new Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade, which aims to reduce road deaths and prevent related crime. More details will be shared in due course.”
