Woman ‘minding her own business at home’ blamed for crash when she was 280 miles away

Drivers have been warned to be vigilant about after a woman from Kent was accused of crashing her car nearly 300 miles away from home. Shelli Birkett, from Herne Bay, was forced to “fight” to prove that she hadn’t been in an accident in after fraudsters crashed a car with cloned number-plates over 280 miles away from her hometown.

She had been “minding her business at home” when her insurance company told her they had launched an investigation into the incident and demanded to know her whereabouts and the condition of her car. The case was ultimately withdrawn after Google location data proved that Ms Birkett had been at home at the time of the crash – but it was “scary” to learn that criminals had cloned her number-plates and attached to a near-identical car, she told South East.

Cases of number-plate cloning soared by 26% in 2023, according to data from CarWow, with nearly 10,000 motorists forced to prove their innocence after being contacted by insurance companies and in some cases, handed fines or other penalties.

Criminals use stolen or cloned registration plates to dodge road offences including speeding and parking fines, and often attach it to a similar-looking stolen or salvaged vehicle to avoid suspicion.

While the crime is on the rise throughout the UK, number-plate theft in Kent alone has risen by 37% in the last four years, with 1,120 cases reported in 2024, according to the .

Chief Superintendent Rob Marsh, of Kent Police, suggested that the rise could be linked to the cost-of-living crisis, and warned that cases of cloning were hard to track until a crime had been committed.

He said: “If someone wakes up in the morning and their number-plate is missing, they know they’ve been the victim of a crime.”

“[But] if the number-plate has, unbeknownst to the victim, been cloned, we’ve got to wait for it to trigger an ANPR camera linked to another incident, and then it would come to our attention and we would … start our investigation.”

Alongside cloning the registration plates of cars pictured online on vehicle buying and selling websites, fraudsters also keep an eye out for vehicles left stationary in driveways for long periods.

Expert tips to avoid falling victim to cloning scams include investing in personalised plates that “draw attention” on the roads.

Criminals are more likely to avoid eye-catching designs in a bid to fly under the radar for as long as possible, Mark Trimbee, the CEO of Regtransfers, said.