24/10/2024 BBC Crime Watch – at about 20 minutes into the program there appeared a brief segment about ‘car cloning’.
The programme comments upon car cloning, a form of vehicle identity theft where criminals copy the identity of one car onto another — typically a stolen vehicle — to disguise its true origin.
Cloning serves two main purposes:
- To evade detection when using a car, potentially for crime.
- To re-sell a stolen car as if it were legitimate, tricking innocent buyers.
The process is described as highly organised. Cars are often stolen to order, hidden temporarily to check for trackers, then shipped overseas once deemed safe. Some discovered inside shipping containers at UK ports, destined for Central Africa, the Middle East, or the Caribbean, depending on local demand for vehicles or parts.
The police estimate around 110,000 cars were stolen in the UK last year, with only 43% recovered.
Vehicles are thought to end up in “chop shops”; illegal workshops where cars are dismantled for parts or have their identities changed.
Even parked vehicles are targeted for valuable parts — headlights, bumpers, bonnets — a practice known as “car cannibalism.”
The trade is described as tiered organised crime:
- Thieves steal the vehicles.
- Chop shops alter or strip them.
- Facilitators coordinate shipping or re-distribution.
Modern cloning can go beyond fake plates: criminals may use electronic tools to reprogram the car’s ECU (engine control unit) to change its digital identity, making detection harder.
To avoid buying a cloned car, the police advise:
- Be wary of prices that seem too good to be true.
- Avoid informal sales (car parks, lay-bys).
- Always view the car at the registered keeper’s address.
- Check documents carefully and perform online vehicle checks.
- Prefer established dealers
- Pay for a professional inspection (e.g. AA or RAC).
This article summarises information broadcast in a BBC Crimewatch segment on vehicle cloning (October 2024). All BBC programme content and quotations remain © British Broadcasting Corporation.
Material has been used under the fair dealing provisions of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, for the purposes of reporting and public information.
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