Fake plates used to ding Cambridge driver for road tolls
CAMBRIDGE - Something wasn't adding up.
A November bill from Highway 407 said Jennifer Hall owed $17 for a trip she made on the tolled Ontario highway.
But neither Hall nor her husband, James, were driving that day.
Well I am looking at a picture of me doing work on my car at that exact time and date in Cambridge, so I don't know how it was me," she told the highway's customer service representative.
But it was matching plates and a matching car - a grey 2011 328i BMW. As a consolation, the customer service representative dropped the price of the charge to $10.
And then it happened again.
A second bill arrived last Friday for $28 - this time saying Hall was driving in Toronto. But the Cambridge mother of three was clocked in at work that day - the bill said it was at 3:30 p.m. - and her car was parked in the parking lot.
Once again, the photo showed Hall's licence plate entering the tolled road. It only showed the licence plate, she said, so she wasn't able to identify who was driving.
Instead, a decision to promote a Mississauga car parts supplier was her saving grace.
She asked if the licence plate had a Garage16 border cover - the mechanics store where Hall had some modifications done. Facebook photos of the car dating back to July show Hall has had the border cover on since the summer.
The licence plate in the 407 photo didn't have it.
After discussing the matter with the customer service representative, Hall said she was told to file a report with the police.
The tolled 400-series highway did not return a request for comment.
Waterloo Regional Police Service spokesperson Andre Johnson confirmed Thursday a police report had been filed for Hall's copied plates on Saturday.
Johnson said the issue isn't necessarily common, but it does happen.
Theft of plates can occur - including the copying of information," he said. We encourage people, in general, to review all financial statements regularly to check for anomalies to ensure fraud-related activity has not occurred."
Since posting about the experience online, Hall said she has heard other stories about people buying fake Ontario licence plates on sites like Amazon and matching the numbers to legitimate plates of similar model cars.
I wouldn't have even known if I hadn't gotten the bill," she said. If they hadn't taken the 407, they could still be driving around with my plates."
In the meantime, Hall said she now has a case number with the 407's fraud department.
She has also had to pay for a new licence plate number out of her own pocket - it cost her $59, twice the amount she initially owed for the January bill.
It's a scary situation because you don't know what these people are getting up to," she said. They could be racking up parking tickets and I would have no idea - they've had my plates for at least three months."
It's a scenario that still makes Hall uneasy.
She advises everyone to look over their bills from toll routes, even if the numbers don't necessarily jump off the page.
I wasn't even going to fight it originally, it's not like it's that much money," she said. But who knows what could have happened if this kept up?"
Robert Williams is a Waterloo Region-based reporter for The Record. Reach him via email: robertwilliams@torstar.ca