What a nightmare I've just gone through!

[GO FURTHER]

Yesterday I received an invoice for unpaid tolls of trips I did not take on our Citylink toll roads here in Victoria for last month.

Luckily, I keep detailed records of my car and trips in my daily diary, so I know exactly if I used a particular toll road or not.

I also, of course, have a toll account with Citylink (Now known as LinkT) and an E-Tag always mounted on the windscreen of my car, and the account is always in credit.

I double checked my account online for my trip history, which did not show the trips I had been incorrectly invoiced for.

If the invoice was not paid within a certain time frame, it would be handed on to the police who could then issue infringement notices to me totalling many hundreds of dollars.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I rang Citylink to complain that I believed it was a case of "mistaken number plate" identity or someone may have copied my number plate and put it on their car to use the toll roads free.

I demanded photographic evidence that it was my car taken by the cameras at those toll gates.

I explained that my car is very distinctive, easily identifiable a mile away, and could not be mistaken for many cars being a white Mustang with wide black stripes running over the top and front of the car, that would clearly show in any photograph... Not the sort of car you would use in any criminal activity if you wanted to go under the radar.

Sure enough, the photograph is sent to me, and it is a Toyota bearing the same number plate as mine! The Toyota emblem on the grille showing clearly.

Now Citylink cameras can only take photos in black and white and not colour.
So the colour of the number plate or car cannot be ascertained.

The guy I spoke to a Citylink in their photo department was very helpful and could see from their records that my plate was registered to a Ford Mustang and not a Toyota and agreed to waive the toll fees.

I told him there were only two possibilities since my number plates are still on my car and have not been stolen...

1. Someone has copied my plate, printed it out and pasted it on their front number plate while travelling through toll roads.

or 2. It is possible to have the exact same number plate in different states within Australia, and someone from interstate with the same number as mine has come to Victoria and driven through the toll roads without an E-tag or paying for the trips.

I asked him to check the "state" displayed on the number plate in the photos.
Unfortunately, no state such as Vic or NSW was identifiable on the plate.

So I decided to do my own detective work.

I ran the number plate through this site: https://ismyairbagsafe.com.au
Which allows you to type in any number plate and state to see if you are affected by the "Takata airbag recall".

It tells you which vehicle the plate belongs to.

When I input my plate number and tried different states, it identified the vehicle as a Toyota RAV 4 registered in NSW.

I called the guy back at Citylink and told him my findings, and that he could now do a search on the transport system they have access to for NSW and determine the owner of the vehicle and pass on the invoice or fines.

I find it quite disturbing that you can have the same number plate registered to different cars on a state by state basis in Australia, as this is what can happen, especially if you have "custom plates".

Anyway, I now have an email letter in writing and the photo from Citylink, should I incur any more invoices from this car with my number travelling Victoria's toll roads for free.

It's worth checking the link I provided above to see if anyone else in another state has the same rego number as yours.