A young driver had his life ruined after his number plate was cloned – seeing him “swarmed” by police, owing bailiffs £2,500 in unpaid fines and in a battle with TfL.
Eathan Cooper was left struggling to prove his innocence when a criminal copied his car registration.
The crook racked up £360 worth of ULEZ fines and more than 20 fines for speeding, parking and bus lane penalties.
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Eathan, who battled the issue for eight months, even had a bailiff threat sent to his door.
The 24-year-old says his nightmare first started when he received a bus fine while on holiday in Madrid.
Eathan, of Sawtry, near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, discovered the offence took place at 2am in Essex.
Confused, he initially thought the penalty may have been a mistake.
But when a further 10 fines arrived over the following week, he knew something was seriously wrong.
“As the letters started to come through, you realise this is serious now – something has happened here,” the motorcycle sales account manager told Need To Know.
“I contacted the police [in Cambridgeshire]; I was panicked.
“I was scared to drive my own vehicle.”
Eathan found out about his first fine when his 19-year-old brother Charlie called him about the letter.
He said: “He called me and said, ‘You’ve got a letter here, it looks like a speeding ticket.”
“I live over an hour from Essex, so I wouldn’t have been driving around at 2am.
“I was just really confused.
“Because I was away in Madrid, I didn’t know what to think.”
As the fines flooded in, Eathan suspected his car number plate had been cloned.
Car plate cloning is when someone steals your vehicle’s license plate number and puts it on a different car.
The other vehicle can then get fines or tickets, but they are sent to you because your plate was used.
Eathan reported the crime to the police, who advised him to get a private number plate, setting him back £300.
But things only got worse from there.
Over the next few months, he managed to have his fines and penalties overturned by every authority – except Transport for London.
He said: “TfL didn’t want to acknowledge anything.
“I had six tickets from them in total – I had to provide evidence for every single ticket.
“For a couple of them, I could prove I wasn’t even in England.
“I submitted the evidence – which included a ferry ticket, hotel bookings and a statement from my manager when I was working.
“They didn’t accept that and said it wasn’t enough evidence.
“When I got the statement from the police, I called TfL, and they wouldn’t let me add the letter in as part of evidence as it went past evidence stage.”
As months went by, the situation worsened, with Eathan “swarmed” by police on one occasion after they mistook him for the plate-cloning criminal.
He said: “I started getting pulled over by the police.
“I got swarmed by police officers while running errands [in King’s Lynn] – they thought I was the cloned vehicle.
“I was also going to the Christmas markets in Manchester when I was pulled over on the M6.
“I was scared, already knowing it could happen, then it started to happen.
“They [Manchester Police told] me [to] put stickers on my number plate so they knew I wasn’t the cloned vehicle.”
In a final attempt to avoid court after TfL rejected his appeal, Eathan went to Peterborough Magistrates’ Court to make a declaration statement.
He paid £30 per document to have six signed by legal professionals.
His nightmare finally came to an end last month when the BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz03k4nlpyjo, reached out to TfL.
The organisation apologised and confirmed his vehicle had been cloned.
He said: “I also got a £2,500 letter from bailiffs – they said if I didn’t pay, they would come and take stuff away.
“The day before that letter came, [TfL] apologised and said it would all be cancelled, but [it] got confirmed after bailiff came.”
Although the nightmare now seems to be behind him, Eathan admits that he stress has deeply affected his family.
He worries the criminal responsible may never be caught and that the same thing could happen again.
Eathan said: “The worst thing is I’m a UK motorcycle sales account manager.
“I’m constantly away – so it’s a case of getting all the letters through, my mum opening the letters and putting stress on her.
“It [has] caused a lot of arguments.
“We [don’t know] whether [the police has] found anyone [the criminal].
“That uncertainty has made it worse.”
JamPress contacted TFL for comment.
A TfL spokesperson said: “We’re sorry that Mr Cooper has been a victim of vehicle cloning.
“Unfortunately, as we did not receive the evidence of cloning needed to support the representation made, the case progressed to an enforcement agent, and warrants were issued in line with this.
“Having reviewed the case, we are satisfied that it is a cloned vehicle and have cancelled the penalties.”
Jam Press also contacted the authorities regarding various incidents of being pulled over, including the Metropolitan Police, Greater Manchester Police and Norfolk Constabulary for further information.
With the case concluded, none of the departments had further comments to add to this story.
Cambridgeshire Constabulary, which the case study originally contacted regarding the fines, has also been approached but has not provided comment at the time of writing.
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