Katrina Collier was pursued by debt collectors after racking up more than £400 in bogus parking fines after criminals cloned her number plate - before a £300 gadget saved the day14:50, 07 Sep 2026Updated 14:55, 07 Sep 2026Day after day, Katrina Collier kept opening her mail to find parking fines dropping on her doormat for offences she knew she hadn't committed. Confused as to why she was racking up penalty notices - and eventually being pursued by a debt collector - the 53-year-old soon discovered she has become the latest victim of a rampant scam sweeping the UK: number plate cloning.‌Katrina, an author originally from Sydney who now lives in Greenwich, south London, found herself in an never-ending battle with her local council and a private parking company to clear her name.‌"I was just sat at home, and I had apparently been out in my car getting all these fines - it was crazy," Katrina told the Daily Mirror.‌Her ordeal began after she purchased a one-year-old, ex-demo red Honda Civic online. Criminals had scoured the internet to find a vehicle matching the exact model and colour of their own car, printed duplicate plates, and attached them to their vehicle.‌By using cloned plates from another car, which is fully taxed and passed its MOT, fraudsters can slip through ANPR cameras without triggering an alert as a stolen or unregistered vehicle. Experts say it's all too easy for criminals to get away with it, meaning they can zip through toll zones, bus lanes, congestion zones, or rack up speeding and parking fines, with automated systems sending the fines straight to the innocent owner.Shortly after her initial set of fines rose to £170 each, Katrina was then hit with another parking £160 fine from Greenwich Council. With over £400 in penalties mounting, her case was escalated to debt collectors.Fortunately, Katrina had fitted her car with a GPS tracker - which saved her from financial ruin - after pleading her case on the phone didn't resolve the matter, prompting her to prove that her car wasn't in the area when the fines occurred.‌She said: "I have a tracker in my car. When I looked at the photos they had sent, I knew straight away it wasn't my car. Buying the car tracker was the best £300 I have ever spent in my life."While Greenwich Council accepted her evidence and cancelled the ticket, the private firm pushed ahead. Frustrated, she ended up calling the police to obtain a crime reference number - which helped close her case."It's really important that people report crimes like this the second they get a parking ticket and they realise their plate's being cloned," Katrina said. "Get that crime reference number, because the lady at the debt recovery agency said it was the only reason that she could get the fines written off."‌Now, Katrina has applied to the DVLA for a new number plate, finally giving her peace of mind. "We have a cost-of-living crisis and people are struggling, so I get it - but at the same time, don't do it to me," she laughed.Vehicle fraud is a widespread issue. Car cloning and fraudulent number plate reports rose to 11,394 cases in 2025, up from 10,460 in 2024 - and 7,377 in 2020. Last week, London Mayor Sadiq Khan was targeted, after the DVLA mistakenly prosecuted him after a fraudster wrongly registered a non-taxed Nissan Micra in his name.RAC Head of Policy Simon Williams told the Mirror: "Cloning has become the menace of modern-day motoring. It's plain wrong that drivers should have to go through the stress and hassle of having to prove their innocence after someone else has illegally reproduced their number plate and then drives around with it on their car avoiding fines.Article continues below"Sadly, it's all too easy for those who want to break the law in this way to get number plates produced illegally without having to prove it’s theirs by providing the DVLA keepership documents. More needs to be done to both crack down on offenders and illegal number plate producers."How to protect your car:Blur your plate onlineFit your plates with tamper-resistant screws so the plates can't be physically removedPark mindfully in well-lit areas, secure driveways and areas covered by CCTV when possible