The camera never lies?
Telematics came to the rescue of a driver accused of speeding recently, by proving the vehicle was nearly 150 miles away at the time!
A driver from Wembley was issued a fine of £100 and three penalty points for allegedly travelling at 35mph in a 30mph zone in Lincoln last November.
However, because the hire car was fitted with telematics, anti-motor fraud specialist Asset Protection Unit (APU) was able to prove the driver’s innocence. Using data generated by the In-Car Cleverness telematics device, it was able to show that the car was actually nowhere near the scene at the time of the offence.
The driver said, ‘I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I first opened the letter saying I’d been caught speeding in a city I hadn’t even visited for years.
‘At first you question yourself but ultimately I knew I hadn’t been to Lincoln, and certainly not to break the speed limit.
‘When I found out the hire car had telematics, APU just swung into action really, so it’s good to know it’s been resolved. It’s a shame to know that car cloning is still common, though.’
The police later dropped the case, but thousands of vehicles are said to be cloned each year, costing innocent motorists hundreds of thousands of pounds in fines.
Neil Thomas, director of investigative services at APU, said, ‘It’s very satisfying to help out innocent motorists of course, but the real worry here is that it’s almost certain the vehicle in question has been cloned.
‘We’ve seen a number of similar cases surface recently and the worry is that cloning could be back on the rise again.
‘It’s usually linked to large-scale organised crime, and it’s hard to stamp out because the clone is registered to the innocent owner’s address so you have to catch the crooks out on the road.
‘However, we believe criminals are increasingly using cloned cars so that innocent drivers shoulder the blame for their inexcusable driving.’
