Imagine getting a ticket for prohibited parking in Toronto or getting a bill from management on the A-407, even if you live 450 km away in Ottawa. It's a growing phenomenon, CBC noted.
Driver Umar Ahmad received four unfair invoices from the A-407 management last month when his brother discovered the problem.
Someone was selling on Facebook market Copies of his personalized 3MAR license plate for $26.
It actually looked like my plate. Like someone took a photo of it and put it up for sale.
Ontarian Omar Ahmed discovered someone was selling copies of his license plate on Facebook Marketplace.
Photo: CBC/Omar Ahmad
Last year, the A-407 administration handled a monthly average of more than 500 toll cases related to lost, stolen or duplicate plates. This is double the number of cases reported in 2019.
450 km from home
Connie Jensen, who lives in Ottawa, said that although she hasn't set foot in the Queen City during this period, she has received four tickets for prohibited parking in Toronto since May 2022.
At first, she thought the parking attendant had mistyped the license plate number, but after the third and fourth fines, she suspected something was amiss.
I think someone has my license plate number. Fines range from $30 to $150. So they stop anywhere.
The City of Toronto canceled the first two tickets. Ms. Jensen is now trying to overturn the last two.
Plates Well done
Says the police
In Ontario, you are allowed to order a reproduction of your license plate for personal use, but it is illegal to use it on the road.
Some replicas are plastic, but others are metal and are of good quality, says Constable Kerry Schmidt of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
Some plates are well made. A police officer will not notice it on the road.
Christina Basile, spokeswoman for A-407, says fraudsters have so much Completed
They sometimes install a cloned plate on a vehicle of the same model and color as the car with the copied registration number, making it difficult to establish illegal journeys.
what to do?
If a motorist realizes his plate has been cloned, the PPO And the Ministry of Transportation recommends that he notify the police and then go to a ServiceOntario office to get a new registration number.
Umar Ahmed realized that someone had fraudulently copied his license plate.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Sarah Macmillan
However, it is the driver's responsibility to pay $59 for a new plate.
Nothing else to do
Agent Schmidt agrees.
Ms. Jensen finds this unfair. There should be no load on the victim's back
she says.
The province should ban duplicate license plates and increase fines for violators, says Daniel Chai, a law professor at the Metropolitan and University of Toronto.
Currently, a $140 fine is levied for driving with a fake license plate in Ontario.
Based on information provided by CBC News' Nicole Brockbank
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