discussion Personalized number plate stolen

[swazi85]

On driving to Johannesburg today in my wife’s jeeps wrangler, we were pulled over at a police road block. Going through the regular license and and road tax disks etc checks, they were also checking for stolen vehicles.

The police officer then informed me my wife’s number plates I bought for her 40th last year were in fact number belonging to a Toyota Land Cruiser.

I assumed there was a mix up with the vin etc or something. Or an error at the natis departments. No infact an L Cloete as of last year owned my wife’s personalized plates. Coincidentally he has the exact initials my wife has on her plates.

So my first thoughts were the gent who did the PLN must have not registered it correctly. Nope it’s shows clearly on the natis system the personalized plate was allocated to my wife last year may. We even have the PLN certificate as well as road tax disks.

My wife’s jeep as of last year August was automatically given a generic GP plate. So this gent or the company he used has effectively stolen her number plate.

She’s now driving a car that’s illegally on the road with plates according to natis don’t belong to her.

Via a car dealer we found out this individual also applied for almost identical number plate to hers, with one letter different but hers must have been first prize so has some how managed to steal it from my wife’s name as the PLN is owned by the person and not the vehicle.

We are in absolute shock by this.

Has anyone heard of anything like this happening?


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[individj]

shu ... but surely this is an easy one to fix if you see the date you did the plate.

 

[swazi85]

shu ... but surely this is an easy one to fix if you see the date you did the plate.

I honestly don’t know as yet. As we are about to try and fix the mess.

We were the first person to have the plate so you would assume so.


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[///M Individual]

The guy definitely used a properly connected contact to "steal" the plate! You should be able to fight it easily with the docs when you purchased it.

@Coisman can provide some input I'm sure.

 

[TurboLlew]

Please report back on this. It is not an easy feat to transfer a plate between owners and it involves paying fees into the department as well. There is a paper trail no matter what route he used to get the plate.

 

[swazi85]

The guy definitely used a properly connected contact to "steal" the plate! You should be able to fight it easily with the docs when you purchased it.

@Coisman can provide some input I'm sure.

Have been informed it’s quite the process. Not sure if it’s sinister or a cock up on natis side. Fact he has another plate exactly the same with an I instead of a 1, think this guy was really gunning this plate as now he has both.


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[swazi85]

Please report back on this. It is not an easy feat to transfer a plate between owners and it involves paying fees into the department as well. There is a paper trail no matter what route he used to get the plate.

Definitely will do it’s quite a strange unexpected one, have a guy on it already trying to sort it out.


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[AudiDriver]

En route to my work I now count 21 new potholes (the 9km stretch of rather major public road infrastructure has become unusable for my M car) and of the 5 traffic lights only two work intermittently - this has been the case since Oct last year.

Yesterday I tried to use home affairs website to obtain confirmation that I’m married. They state they have a convenient online system for this. But there is no link. They state you can sms your ID to a number and would get confirmation via SMS - I tried this twice without success.

Nothing surprises me anymore. Alight derailment. Rant over.

I am guessing the stolen plate is just another form of (systemic) collapse and complete incompetence.


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[TurboLlew]

En route to my work I now count 21 new potholes (the 9km stretch of rather major public road infrastructure has become unusable for my M car) and of the 5 traffic lights only two work intermittently - this has been the case since Oct last year.

Yesterday I tried to use home affairs website to obtain confirmation that I’m married. They state they have a convenient online system for this. But there is no link. They state you can sms your ID to a number and would get confirmation via SMS - I tried this twice without success.

Nothing surprises me anymore. Alight derailment. Rant over.

I am guessing the stolen plate is just another form of (systemic) collapse and complete incompetence.


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As soon as I am out of my little bubble I experience the same - especially venturing into fourways.

Home affairs things are devved by the lowest bidder who is also the cousin of someone who was running the tender Anyway the solution that I have found with a lot of these government systems is to use a different browser. Not sure if that will help.

Have been informed it’s quite the process. Not sure if it’s sinister or a cock up on natis side. Fact he has another plate exactly the same with an I instead of a 1, think this guy was really gunning this plate as now he has both.


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I read though again, and I can't see any 'gap' that they may even have taken advantage of (eg: if the plate was momentarily 'available' while it was being transferred AND they set up an alert of some kind if that is possible AND someone was actually paying attention to it).

Is this a 3+3 plate or full personalised... I have seen 3+3s 'go with the car' so might be easier to 'steal' those? There are also some plates that appear available in a search but I have been unable to buy (There is one specifically that I've wanted since I got my Alfa - it is perpetually 'available' when they do their initial search and even on Wesbank's tool... then when you want to buy it you can't)

Either way, you need ID docs and forms filled and signatures to execute this so you can probably also lay charges of fraud and identity theft. Watching with popcorn between this guy and his 'service provider' that he probably used. There is no way this doesn't go in your favour.

 

[rodga]

The guy definitely used a properly connected contact to "steal" the plate! You should be able to fight it easily with the docs when you purchased it.

@Coisman can provide some input I'm sure.

+1 for @Coisman
Im sure he can help with some more info

also waiting patiently for the outcome of this

 

[swazi85]

As soon as I am out of my little bubble I experience the same - especially venturing into fourways.

Home affairs things are devved by the lowest bidder who is also the cousin of someone who was running the tender Anyway the solution that I have found with a lot of these government systems is to use a different browser. Not sure if that will help.



I read though again, and I can't see any 'gap' that they may even have taken advantage of (eg: if the plate was momentarily 'available' while it was being transferred AND they set up an alert of some kind if that is possible AND someone was actually paying attention to it).

Is this a 3+3 plate or full personalised... I have seen 3+3s 'go with the car' so might be easier to 'steal' those? There are also some plates that appear available in a search but I have been unable to buy (There is one specifically that I've wanted since I got my Alfa - it is perpetually 'available' when they do their initial search and even on Wesbank's tool... then when you want to buy it you can't)

Either way, you need ID docs and forms filled and signatures to execute this so you can probably also lay charges of fraud and identity theft. Watching with popcorn between this guy and his 'service provider' that he probably used. There is no way this doesn't go in your favour.

Morning it’s two letters, two numbers then the GP, personalized plate, was confirmed it was allocated to
My wife’s name. In may of last year.

Going to park the car until we get it sorted, fortunately have other vehicles to use in the meantime. Apparently police are legally entitled to impound vehicle if found with wrong plates on it. Not worth the risk.

Just praying when I go home that we still have the certificate on file proving the plates ours. Only have the invoice from disk it and pop on email. As certificate is equivalent to the natis docs for the plate.

From below looks like our plate as acquired/stolen whatever you would like to call it in August.

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[swazi85]

+1 for @Coisman
Im sure he can help with some more info

also waiting patiently for the outcome of this

Just got back to SD, fortunately had the pln2 and original invoice filed. So should be able to get it back. Will keep you guys posted.

Just for future reference for everyone make sure you keep the pln2 certificate. I usually bin this stuff after cutting out the disk.


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[Yulz9081]

Geez, I hope I kept mine. Need to go hunt for it when I'm home.

Sorry you had to go through this, such unnecessary stress and admin.

 

[TurboLlew]

Just got back to SD, fortunately had the pln2 and original invoice filed. So should be able to get it back. Will keep you guys posted.

Just for future reference for everyone make sure you keep the pln2 certificate. I usually bin this stuff after cutting out the disk.


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I keep these filed together with the RC1s of the cars. They normally need it to allocate the plates to different cars as well.

In your case though wouldn't this guy have his own fraudulently obtained PLN2 as well (dated later than yours)? I feel like there is still more complexity coming down the line on this - you will probably have to do an affadavit or perhaps even lay a charge of sorts. The fact that this was possible also suggests he gained access to your PLN2, your ID docs etc - If it becomes sticky charges of fraud/identity theft may still be needed.

Either way, I'd love to know how he explains it and what happens from here . Keep the updates coming

 

[swazi85]

Just an update. 3 weeks later we aren’t really any further forward in getting our plate back. Guys don’t seem to be winning.


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[TurboLlew]

Just an update. 3 weeks later we aren’t really any further forward in getting our plate back. Guys don’t seem to be winning.


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Did they at least uncover exactly how this happened?

 

[individj]

is there a new number plate assigned to the car on the system....I remember I had my disc pulled and a new number given...my car was on jozi plates...im saying this because they could pay someone to do this.

 

[NBN]

Just saw this article earlier on

Number plate cloning: The scam costing SA drivers thousands

Criminals are duplicating licence plates, leaving innocent motorists with hefty fines and legal troubles. Find out how to protect yourself.

www.ecr.co.za

 

[swazi85]

is there a new number plate assigned to the car on the system....I remember I had my disc pulled and a new number given...my car was on jozi plates...im saying this because they could pay someone to do this.

Yes there is, temporarily had to get new plates made to match the new random number plate


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[swazi85]

Did they at least uncover exactly how this happened?

Not as yet


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