Number Plate Stolen? What to Do Next

First: is your plate stolen or cloned?

Check which one you've got, because they're two different problems with two different reporting routes.

Stolen means the physical plate is gone, because someone unscrewed it from your car and walked off with it.

Cloned means a copy of your registration has been made and fitted to another car. Your own plates are still on your car. You usually find out when fines arrive for places you've never been.

gov.uk, the government's own site, treats the two as separate reports. In England and Wales you can report a cloned plate on the police website, and the police then tell the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) for you. In Scotland and Northern Ireland you call 101 and write to DVLA separately. Our guide to cloned number plates covers what to do, including asking for wrongly issued fines to be cancelled.

If your plate has been cloned, go there now. The rest of this page is about a plate that's physically missing.

One more point. A stolen plate isn't a stolen car. If you're worried about buying a car that's been stolen, see our guide to stolen car checks instead.

This article is part of our guide to number plates.

Step 1: report it to the police

Do this first. gov.uk says there are two steps to reporting stolen plates, and the police step comes before the DVLA one because the letter needs the reference number.

Call 101, the non-emergency police number. You can also report online. gov.uk links to online reporting for England and Wales, for Scotland and for Northern Ireland, so the route exists wherever you live.

What you need from the police is a crime reference number. Write it down. gov.uk says you'll need to include it when you tell DVLA, and you'll need it again if the plate turns up on another car.

Step 2: tell DVLA by post

You need to send a letter. gov.uk's stolen-plate page gives a postal address only, with no online form or phone number for this report. That's different from the cloned-plate route, which does have an online option in England and Wales.

The letter needs two things:

• your vehicle registration number, the one on the stolen plates
• the crime reference number from the police

That's gov.uk's whole list. You don't need to send your V5C, the car's registration certificate or logbook, or a copy of it. Don't enclose documents the page doesn't ask for.

Send it to DVLA, Swansea, SA99 1AR. That address needs no street name.

Who can send it matters. gov.uk says you must be the registered keeper of the vehicle, or have the keeper's permission. The registered keeper is the person named on the V5C as responsible for registering and taxing the car. If the car is in your partner's name, they write, or you write with their say-so.

DVLA then sends a confirmation letter. It goes to the address on the V5C, not necessarily the address you wrote from. So if you've moved and never updated the logbook, the reply goes to your old house.

Keep that confirmation letter safe, as it's your proof of when DVLA was told.

Should you tell your insurer?

Yes, I'd tell them. It isn't a legal requirement, and gov.uk's stolen-plate page says nothing about insurance at all.

The reason is what happens next. A stolen plate can end up on another car, and fines and charges from that car are sent to the registered keeper. Churchill motor insurance, in a press release dated 12 August 2025, told drivers to report a stolen plate to the police, DVLA and their insurer straight away. If something involving your registration comes up later, your insurer already has the date and the crime reference number.

Keep expectations realistic. A pair of plates costs little, so this isn't really about claiming for them. Check your own policy wording before you assume anything is covered. Give your insurer the crime reference number and the date of the theft, and ask them to note it.

Getting new plates made

You can't drive the car until new plates are fitted. gov.uk puts it plainly: "You'll need to get new number plates for your vehicle before you can drive it." So sort the plates before you sort anything else that needs the car moving.

You can only buy plates from a registered number plate supplier.

The Department for Transport confirmed the rule in a written parliamentary answer in November 2025. By law, anyone who supplies number plates for road use in the UK must be registered with DVLA. gov.uk lists what the supplier must see. The supplier needs two things: proof of your name and address, and proof you're entitled to that registration.

For your name and address, one of these does it:

• your driving licence
• a utility, Council Tax or rates bill from the last 6 months
• a bank or building society statement from the last 6 months
• a national identity card

A passport only confirms your name, not your address, so it won't cover both on its own.

For entitlement to the registration, the V5C is the usual document. The green "new keeper" slip from the V5C works too. So does a V11 tax reminder, a V750 certificate of entitlement, a V778 retention document, or a V948 authorisation certificate with a DVLA stamp. Northern Ireland has its own versions of several of these, such as the V5CNI and V11NI, and gov.uk accepts those as well.

Take the originals, and expect the supplier to check them properly, because that's the point of the rule.

Trade plates are different. If yours have been stolen, you still report it to the police first. You then apply to DVLA for replacements on form VTL310 and pay a fee. gov.uk's page on replacing lost or stolen trade plates has the current fees.

What if the plate turns up on another car?

This is the real risk. Churchill's release lists why plates get stolen or cloned: to commit crimes, dodge cameras, parking fines and tolls, or disguise a stolen car. Each of those means a plate on another car, which has the same effect as cloning. Fines, Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and Clean Air Zone (CAZ) charges and camera flags from that car then land on you as the registered keeper.

Your crime reference number and DVLA's confirmation letter are what protect you. They date the theft, which gives you evidence to send with any challenge. The issuer still decides whether to cancel.

If a fine does arrive, don't ignore it. Contact whoever issued it, explain the plate was stolen, and send the reference number and DVLA letter. Our guide to cloned number plates covers that in more detail, including how a car buyer can check a plate's history before handing over money.

There's a buyer's side to this too. If you're looking at a used car and the plates look new, or the supplier markings are missing, ask why. A Basic check shows whether the record holds a plate change, along with previous keeper evidence. Run it before you travel to view.

Will DVLA give you a new registration number?

Not as a routine step. gov.uk's stolen-plate process ends with replacement plates for your existing registration, and it doesn't mention a new number.

DVLA does issue replacement registration numbers in a small number of cases, though. The Department for Transport gave the figures in a written parliamentary answer in November 2025. DVLA issued 136 in 2024, free of charge, after people reported fines or letters about vehicles they didn't recognise. That year it had 10,461 such reports.

The answer gives no criteria and gov.uk publishes no application route. If your plate keeps turning up on another car after you've reported it, ask DVLA whether this applies to you. You'd still pay for the new plates yourself.

If you want a different number anyway, there is a normal route. You can buy a private registration and assign it to the car. That's a purchase, not a remedy for theft, and DVLA has rules on what it will and won't issue. Our guide to banned number plates covers those.

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