How thieves use fake licence plates to cover their tracks

With car thefts at an all-time high in Victoria and presenting an ongoing issue in other Australian states and territories, it’s been discovered criminals are doing more than just smashing and grabbing vehicles.

Fake or cloned number plates are becoming an increasingly prevalent tool used by thieves to stay on the run after stealing a vehicle.

Following the theft of a car, thieves remove the standard plates and find an identical vehicle, note down its registration number and have cloned plates made – sometimes at markets.

Earlier this month, Victoria Police announced Operation Boston – which has been running in the Merri-bek region of Melbourne since August 2024 – had resulted in the seizure of more than 130 counterfeit number plates.

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The plates were identified as belonging to the incorrect vehicle through the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, which provides near-instantaneous registration details to detect suspended, unlicensed and unregistered drivers.

However, stolen plates are being discovered outside of the region.

A Volkswagen Golf was recently spotted near the CarExpert Melbourne office, with the font on its number plate not matching that of standard-issue Victoria plates.

Despite being listed as a registered vehicle on the VicRoads website, the Golf’s Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) – located under the windscreen – was deliberately shielded from view by pieces of paper.

This isn’t a lone incident, with online users taking to social media to show off other examples of cloned plates.

While most cloned plates don’t reflect light like Victoria’s standard issue number plates, Nancy Wannous – whose car was stolen and subsequently recovered – discovered the fake plates had reflective white tape applied to them.

Victoria and other states have been rolling out number plates with holographic watermarks, however these aren’t available for every plate, making some easier to clone than others.

In the US, states such as Arizona, California and Michigan now allow digital number plates, which not only show the vehicle’s registration number but also its registration status.

This means the plates can be remotely changed to indicate a vehicle is stolen or being used for nefarious purposes.

Unfortunately, this technology is yet to be approved for Australia.

MORE: Police recover more than two dozen stolen cars, seize over 100 fake number plates MORE: Toyota, Holden, Subaru thefts rise massively in this Australian state