Manchester police have recovered £570,000-worth of stolen cars from a ring that was cloning stolen cars to make them appear legitimate. Car cloning is the vehicle equivalent of identity fraud – criminals steal a car and give it a new identity copied from a similar vehicle already on the road. This gang would steal cars and clone them to make them look legitimate. The cars were given new number plates and the registration number was used to list the vehicles for sale. The gang also used stolen V5 documents, stolen road tax discs, fraudulent MOT certificates and receipts and faked vehicle history check documents. They also used the personal details of innocent people to help create a fake history for the vehicles, making the scam very hard to spot.