A MOTORIST who faces legal action for the non payment of a private parking charge claims she has fallen victim to a “cloning” fraud.

Lisa Jones, of Plas Kynaston Lane in Cefn Mawr, says the registration plate of her Peugeot 307 appears to have been copied onto a similar vehicle being driven in Greater London and she has got slapped with the charge.

The mother-of-one received the notice from a private parking company called Parking Control Management claiming her car was in breach of parking restrictions on May17 last year at a car park in Biggs Square in Hackney - 204 miles away from her home.

Now she fears a visit from a firm of bailiffs after a county court judgement was made against her with the private parking company saying the initial £100 charge has been swelled to £357.85 with additional charges and VAT.

Lisa says she has contacted Parking Control Management to point out the vehicle snapped by its cameras in London is a hatchback Peugeot model while her car is a convertible, but to no avail.

“It is ridiculous and plain to see that they are different cars. I’ve had a letter saying I’ve got a county court judgement against me and it is very worrying,” said Lisa, who bought her Peugeot from an e-Bay seller in the Manchester area for £1,800 on May 1 last year.

She received the parking charge notification in August last year and says there was no further correspondence with the firm until she was sent a letter from a firm of solicitors representing Parking Control Management last month.

She added: “I have since changed my plate to a personalised one out of choice and that may have stopped me getting more of these charges. But the original plate looks like it has been cloned and there is a car being driven around in London with the same registration. I think someone has seen the number plate when it was being sold on e-Bay and put it onto their car.

“I went onto the DVLA site and the car coming up with the plate is a different Peugeot, a hatchback. It’s not the same car, but it has the same number plate.”

Registration plate cloning is a growing problem where criminals copy the identity of another vehicle by duplicating registration plates, often so they can carry out crimes or avoid speeding and parking fines.

Lisa reported the identity theft to the Metropolitan Police and was given an incident reference number, but she has heard nothing since.

A spokesman for Parking Control Management said that Ms Jones should also inform the DVLA and go through the company’s appeals procedure for which there is a form on its website.