Attack of the clones: Police crack down on motorcycle plate fraud with London show display

The Metropolitan Police are battling vehicle cloning while urging motorcyclists to be aware of the threat when buying used.

• Related: Footage submitted to Devon and Cornwall Police used to catch law-breakers

Cloning occurs when a legitimate number plate is used on another vehicle to hide the fact that it’s not road legal, stolen, or to misrepresent its engine size. To highlight the issue, the Met took a cloned Vespa GTS 300 scooter to the recent Devitt Insurance MCN London Motorcycle Show.

Small to mid-sized bikes and scooters are prime targets due to often having shared components across capacity brackets.  

This allows criminals to pass off higher-powered machines as 50-125cc models able to be ridden on L-plates, while actually operating machines beyond their qualification – simply by swapping in a different plate. 

“It’s mainly inexperienced people riding these on provisional licences – someone who doesn’t have the proper training,” Constable Daniel Fearnley said during the London event. 

“We’ve even seen 16-year-olds on Gilera 300s registered as mopeds. It’s an accident waiting to happen. People will get seriously hurt on them and this will result in fatalities,” the Met officer added. “300-400cc bikes typically have a 125cc variant. That’s machines like the KTM Duke, Yamaha MT and Vespa GTS. Because they are available with different engine sizes, they are very easy to ring.”

Fearnley continued: “High-powered scooters in particular are being ridden on false plates to appear legitimate. These are then used for drug running, phone snatching and other offences.

“People caught knowingly riding them will lose the money they’ve paid, they’ll be reported for no insurance and riding ‘otherwise than in accordance’, and there’s the prospect of being charged for handling stolen goods as well. 

“I’ve personally identified around 700 bikes, and we’ve seized machines as far away as Newcastle and South Wales.” 

The police are in the early stages of launching a specific operation, but details could not be revealed at this time. 

To avoid buying a cloned bike, Fearnley advises starting with an HPI check but cautions that it only shows details relating to that specific registration.  

“Check the colour and mileage to make sure it matches, check the VIN – it should be straight and well-aligned, not like somebody’s done it themselves.”