A WOMAN has been slapped with 20 speeding fines in a city she has never been to – after her motorcycle number plates were cloned.
Learner Karen Goode thought it was “a joke” when she first received a letter saying she had been speeding in Swansea, despite “never having been out on the bike.”
The Northampton native was told she had been snapped going 50mph through a 30mph zone on Carmarthen Road in the Welsh city, although she says she has never even visited the place.
But Karen insists the number plates on her Honda CB Series motorbike have been cloned – and she fears she could face points on her licence, colossal fines, or even be sent to court due to her reg being copied.
Since being sent her first fine at the start of April, Karen has continued to receive around £2,000 worth of penalties from South Wales Police, as well as a warning that she could be summoned to Magistrates court.
“It is shocking, I had not even been out on the bike and got a letter through the door,” she told Wales Online.
“When you get one in the post, you think it’s a mistake but getting this many, it’s just a joke.”
A frustrated Karen says she has reported the matter to the police armed with evidence her details have been imitated, but the fines still keep coming.
She said she had told police how on one occasion her bike was in a Northampton garage on the day that two fines were issued.
The low mileage on her motorcycle also proves she has not repeatedly travelled the gruelling nearly 200-mile journey to Swansea, she explained.
Karen claims she was simply told “to ignore the tickets as they do not have the manpower available” to catch the cloner after she contacted South Wales Police.
But she was then sent another threatening letter stating that she could be hauled “directly to the Magistrates Court” after ignoring the fines.
“Nothing seems to be getting done about it. It has been very stressful, not only for me but my family, I just do not know what to do and the issue is not being resolved.
“I am being told conflicting things, the organisation issuing the tickets is telling me not to worry about it but South Wales Police are the ones issuing me with a warning, urging me to name the person responsible,” she said.
“They could potentially hurt someone or kill a child and it comes back to me.
“It makes me physically sick, we’ve had two motorcyclist friends killed in the past week and I’m scared that my bike is now a wanted vehicle and I’m going to be confronted for it in my hometown.”
The force said that it was a matter for GoSafe, the Welsh road casualty reduction agency that operates the speed cameras on Carmarthen Road.
A spokesman for GoSafe said: “We cannot comment on individual ongoing cases.
“However, we can confirm that when a claim is made of cloned plates we have a team of dedicated officers who will deal with investigating these claims.
“In a case where a plate has been cloned, whilst everything is being done to deal with this offence, Notices of Intended Prosecution (NIPs) may still continue to be sent to the registered keeper until the offending vehicle has been seized by police, or the investigation is concluded.”
