This came up in another thread but I have long had opinions about this.

Apart from a private plate, which makes your car stand out in the crowd more than a boggo one, is it really a good thing to have other stuff on your car which picks you out? For example, if you get snapped speeding and they send you the picture, if your car was very plain/standard other than the plate you might be able to get away with saying your car was cloned and that's not you in your car (as long as there is no face shot of you smiling at the wheel!)

However, if you have a sticker (such as the forum one) or any other differentiator on your car, it instantly points it out as being YOU!

Does anyone else have opinions about this? Is it worth bothering to think about or not? Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top

*Gone:L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB

You just beat me to it RRUK. I've just posted on this subject on the Privacy thread. Feel free to move my post to here.

Best defence is a Tracking System that you control and have access to "Yes" do a great "retail one"

Hi Adam, I too have though of this, offenders claiming their plate could have been cloned etc.

However, the Police would be unlikely to just stop there, they would probably start to look at other things like bank accounts - had the person concerned stopped at a shop or garage and paid for anything. If so they may have been captured by cctv or their debit card details could tie them to being in that specific area.

In this day and age there are probably too many "paper" trails to try and deny that you may have been in a specific area, probably end up in jail for perjury instead of a simple speeding fine

Records of credit card transactions, mobile phone location (which cell you're in, trangulated with the next nearest) and number plate recognition and you could track most people down to within 200 yards! Then you can narrow it down with face recognition software on CCTV cameras and you've got 'em.

If they don't do it routinely now, it'll only be a couple of years before they do (it'll be a council using anti-terrorist legislation to find a litter lout that starts it all). Time to buy that foil hat and fall off the grid!

Quote:

Time to buy that foil hat and fall off the grid!

OR just wear a hoody everywhere, pay cash and drive a car with privaseee glass nobody would be able to recognise you or follow a paper trail

Vogue wrote:

Hi Adam, I too have though of this, offenders claiming their plate could have been cloned etc.

However, the Police would be unlikely to just stop there, they would probably start to look at other things like bank accounts - had the person concerned stopped at a shop or garage and paid for anything. If so they may have been captured by cctv or their debit card details could tie them to being in that specific area.

In this day and age there are probably too many "paper" trails to try and deny that you may have been in a specific area, probably end up in jail for perjury instead of a simple speeding fine

Interestingly - have had a recent personal example of this.
I got a note from the Metropolitan Police in Feb to say my Disco had been Gatso'd in West London somewhere in November!
Fixed penalty 3 pts + £60.
Asked for photo - and you could clearly make out the plate, and the number was right - but the plate was the wrong shape! Apart from a lack of tow bar - the vehicle looked identical.

I had a private plate on it -and with only 6 digits and often towing big farm kit about, we'd used a standard 'long' plate from a previous vehicle (farmers are tight!) -and not a standard square one so the plate wasn't obscured. This was so we could get away with using a short trailer without a plate - just lights.

Explained that to the police, but they said 'no-one clones personal plates' and tried to infer we'd been caught 286 miles away from where the vehicle was parked on the date in question.
I kept protesting our innocence -and just refused to return any forms that admitted liability.

Many, many calls from a persistent policeman - that only worked 9-5, so we always missed his calls - and farm hours are before and after that!
As what I was saying was true, repeating the same explanation -" not our car, plate is different shape" - although I could not prove it - they have now stopped calling me and more than 3 months has now passed.

Does beg the question - are we all now presumed guilty - until we can prove our own innocence?

Anyhow - my advice - if you're ever challenged like that -sign /send nothing and stubbornly protest.

Hope the who cloned a Disco 3 with our private plate is still driving it.
It's now on a different vehicle entirely! Won't work for him for long...

Regards

Muddy Range Rover Vogue SE SDV8 - L405 (now sadly sold)
BMW i3 (fantastic little runabout)
Kioti NX6010 Tractor
Yamaha Big Bear ATV
And a whole heap of other kit...

Reading the post about the D3 being cloned it must be a good reason to have something personal on your motor to prove that the cloned one is not you. The different shape back plate obviously did not help as much as you might think but something particularly distinguishing could prove your innocence on the other hand as the first post suggests it could prove your guilt in a different situation. Interesting dilema I may have stumbled upon.

good for if your car is cloned then but bad if it really WAS you and you want to try and get out of a minor motoring offence! Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top

*Gone:L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB

I had a letter from the Lincolnshire Police in the early nineties saying my car had caused an accident etc etc. The registration and car manufacturer details were right, but they named the wrong model of car - I had a Supra, but it was down as a Hiace van!! I'd never been to Lincoln so knew it could not have been me so I sent them a letter saying I'd never been there and did not own a Hiace van, I then got a letter of apology sent back from them.
I would say that if you are wrongly accused of speeding etc and you know where your car was at the time of the offence, then, if you have another witness to verify it, you could maybe write 2 signed statements to that effect, but also say you would be happy to repeat what you have written in a court of law, to back up how seriously you are taking the matter, then send them off to the police. They would hopefully read these and know that 2 people would be unlikely to commit perjury for the sake of a minor speeding fine etc. Steve

Main car : FFRR L405 Vogue SDV8
Other car : Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
Past cars : FFRR L322 Vogue TD6 SE (Sept 2006 MY07) ; LandCruiser SWB ; 4-Runner ; Supras; XJS V12 LeMans

Just a small and possible inconsequential change to mark your car out from the herd of other FFRR's might be to change to non-standard exhaust tips/pipes, I know somebody who has a small enamelled Union Jack badge on the rear hatch. All very inconspicuous and easily overlooked by cloners
My own cars have always had a sticker in the rear window supporting a very obscure charity.......................... quite difficult to clone that! Also putting a forum sticker on the rear screen should also make your car a bit more individual, there are not many FFRR.com stickers around

Mine's got a few stickers inside that would make it harder to clone:

FFRR Forum Sticker - front and rear
BASC Sticker
RBL Poppy sticker
Swiss Pass Discovery 4 HSE
1998 110 TUM HS FFR Hard Top XD WOLF
1982 Series 3 Hard Top

*Gone:L462 D5 HSE LUX, L663 Defender 110 HSE, Discovery 3 HSE, 2014MY Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged AB Dynamic; L405 Exec Vogue SE 4.4, 5.0 Supercharged Autobiography, Defender TDCi XS CSW, Defender TD5 HT, Vogue SE TDV8, Vogue TD6, RRSport SC 4.2V8, Classic 3.9 Vogue Auto, Land Rover Series 3 SWB

Stick a Winch on the front

Paint it Orange?