So far this year, a record 311 stolen cars have been identified as ‘clones’, according to the car crime monitoring service LIV.

The cloned cars are given the same number plates as other cars of the same make, colour and year. This means the owner of the original car is sent traffic fines and parking tickets relating to the cloned car. The clones can also be easily sold on.
Car identity theft is relatively simple because ownership papers are easy to forge and post office workers are not alert to the risks, the LIV says.
Two years ago, LIV identified just two cases of cloned cars.