Ghost plates: Drivers are getting billed for tolls they never incurred

(InvestigateTV) — Getting a bill in the mail from a toll on a highway or bridge has become more common with the advent of traffic cameras that can capture license plates.

But some drivers are getting bills for tolls in places they’ve never visited and for cars they’ve never driven.

Our investigation found some drivers go to great lengths to use someone else’s plate or alter their own to get out of paying for tolls or tickets.

Investigative reporter Anna Werner found some people facing bills totaling thousands of dollars.

South Carolina veteran receives New York toll bills

Among the millions of cars tracked by cameras on New York City’s busy streets, one was an SUV with a South Carolina license plate that racked up thousands of dollars in unpaid tolls and tickets.

The plate once belonged to Calvin Lawrence, who lives outside Charleston.

“I’m a retired veteran,” said Lawrence, who is disabled and hasn’t been to New York in years.

He was surprised when he opened his mail to find a toll bill for $22.38. The license plate number matched the one Lawrence had, but he no longer owned that plate. He’d turned it in to the South Carolina DMV 16 years earlier.

“I live in South Carolina, so I don’t know how it could be me,” Lawrence said during a phone call to the New York agency.

“Well, they took down the information, said, ‘Oh, we’ll handle it,’” he said.

But the bills kept coming, including bus lane tickets.

Videos of those infractions show cameras caught the same vehicle using Lawrence’s old plate number while driving and making stops in bus lanes, which is illegal in New York. The vehicle was caught cruising up the bus lane, escaping traffic, each time incurring $50 tickets that New York City sent to the Lawrences in South Carolina.

“You know exactly what you’re doing. You know this tag does not belong to you. You know, you’re racking up hundreds of dollars of tickets for someone else to pay,” Nicole Lawrence, Calvin’s wife, said.

Similar cases across the country

The Lawrences are not alone.

Joseph Jackson of Virginia said someone used his expired plate number.

“Somebody’s got my tags and that needs to stop,” Jackson said.

Mary Smith of Connecticut said someone used her current license plate number even though the real plate was still on her classic car.

“It’s like fraud, and we didn’t do it,” Smith said.

All appear to have fallen victim to what’s known as a “ghost plate,” a license plate that hides the true owner or driver of a car.

In New York City, the problem is so bad that a city council report called the problems “alarming.” It found that nearly one in five out-of-state vehicles surveyed had plates “not registered to the vehicle.”

Methods used to avoid tolls

Former New York Police Department auto crimes investigator Tommy Burke said people will try anything to get out of paying tolls, like faking plates with plastic materials that can be attached with self-fasteners.

Photos show people covering their plates and even disguising them with what looks like gum or leaves.

“I’ve seen them glue a leaf onto the back of a license plate so it covers some of the letters and numbers,” Burke said. “Think of an idea that you can, you know, scam somehow that someone not seeing your license plates so you don’t have to pay a toll or fine. And they’re doing it, they’re doing it.”

During a ride-along, Burke pointed out a temporary Georgia plate that was expired and unreadable from 10 feet away on a Prius.

What could contribute to problem

The reason bills were going to the Lawrences on their old plates may lie with the databases behind those cameras, which toll agencies and their contractors use to track license plates. Those databases may contain outdated information.

“The primary reason why they would still be getting a bill based on a plate that they surrendered years ago would likely mean that the toll facility or the toll facility’s contractor is using old data,” Ian Grossman, CEO of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, said.

The old data means toll agencies or their contractors might not have removed the Lawrences’ 2009 plate from their database.

When we contacted those agencies, they wouldn’t say exactly how it happened.

“Someone’s not doing their job. That’s all it boils down to,” Calvin Lawrence said.

After we reached out to New York agencies, they said the tolls and fees billed to the couple either have been or will be dismissed.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, said the Lawrences’ old license plate has now been flagged in its system so police can be alerted if it passes through toll systems again.

Fake plates sold online

New York’s investigation found temporary plates marketed online. Real expired plates and novelty ones are also available for sale online.

In many states, it’s not illegal to own fake plates, but putting them on a car is against the law.