Mr Losekann took matters into his own hands

Marcos Losekann, 37, got speeding, congestion charge and parking fines from areas in London that he had not been to.

He had become one of growing number of drivers falling victim to criminals who 'clone' car plates to avoid motoring penalties.

But when he tried to protest his innocence the authorities failed to believe him, so he decided to investigate for himself and tracked down the car that had a duplicate of his registration number.

First he asked for copies of photographs of from Transport for London (TfL), after getting a congestion charge fine for being in King's Cross, when he had not been there on that day.

The pictures showed small differences, such as a different coloured bumper, between his car and the offending one.

This is the end of the nightmare but it proves if you persevere you can achieve anything Marcos Losekann

He sent TfL photos of his car, but it then said he could have switched his own plates to avoid the fine.

Then he looked at the areas which the fines were being made and tracked down the car to a street in Islington, north London.

He called police officers who found the false plates peeled off but they said they could do nothing else because the owner may have been an innocent victim who thought he had bought a legitimate car.

So Mr Losekann punctured the tyres, went to a national newspaper and then told the police he had gone to the media.

Forensic tests

The next day he found the car had been taken away by the police.

Mr Losekann told BBC News: "This is the end of the nightmare.

"But it proves that if you persevere you can achieve anything."

A spokesman for Scotland Yard did not comment on the delay in dealing with the incident but said: "We now have the car and a forensic team is examining it."

TfL said Mr Losekann had "done a fantastic job finding the car", and added that his case was being looked at by its enforcement officers.

Motoring organisations are warning of a flood of similar complaints if congestion charging spreads across the country.

Paul Watters, for the AA, said: "The solution to car cloning is for DVLA to re-register vehicles so innocent parties can free themselves of this nightmare very quickly."