A Dallas man who says he hasn’t set foot in Philadelphia in more than 40 years received two speeding tickets from the Philadelphia Parking Authority for a dark Mercedes he doesn’t own, raising questions about license plate fraud and how agencies handle canceled tags.

Ronald Clements told NBC10 Responds the citations listed a license plate number that wasn’t his and showed a photo of a vehicle he had never driven.

“I certainly don’t drive a Mercedes,” Clements said.

A canceled plate that kept coming back

Clements said the plate number on the tickets had previously been assigned to a white Buick he bought in 2022, but he replaced the tag after purchasing the vehicle. He contacted the Texas DMV and obtained a letter confirming the plate had been canceled that year.

He said he shared the letter with the PPA but could not get the tickets dismissed.

“I’m just so frustrated, you know. And I tried to explain myself, but they were just adamant that, ‘hey, this is on you,’” Clements said.

After Clements contacted NBC10 Responds, the station reached out to both the Texas DMV and the PPA. Texas confirmed his paperwork was accurate and that its records showed the plate had been canceled. The PPA asked NBC10 Responds to provide the cancellation letter, even though Clements said he had already submitted it.

Nine days after the station re-shared the document, the PPA notified Clements the fees had been waived.

Plate appeared on 10 different cars

The PPA told NBC10 it had sent the plate number to Texas and the search returned Clements’ information. Texas said that when someone searches the canceled plate, Clements’ record may still appear even though the plate is also marked as canceled.

An NBC10 Responds Philadelphia police source said the license plate number on Clements’ citation has appeared on 10 different cars.

That raised a broader question: how could someone be driving with a canceled plate?

Sgt. Joe Escribano of the Travis County Constable’s Office in Texas, who investigates license plate fraud, said anyone can buy a custom metal plate online with whatever letters and numbers they choose.

“If you have somebody that’s selling stuff illegally, I think the best thing for them to do like they did on this one, they just go ahead and pick a random. It was probably just random,” Escribano said.

“If you get something like that and put it on your car, go commit a crime, I mean, that’s gonna be tough to detect,” he said.

Speed cameras can’t catch the fraud

Because cloned plates can look real, law enforcement may not know who is behind the wheel unless an officer pulls over the driver and runs the plate in person. If a speed camera captures the plate, the ticket goes to whoever the database links to that tag number.

“The problem is that the victim like the person that you have is being victimized and they’re having to go through all the hoops,” Escribano said.

For anyone in Northeast Philadelphia or elsewhere who receives a ticket for a vehicle or plate that isn’t theirs, the advice from NBC10 Responds is simple: don’t ignore it. Even if you don’t owe the fine, the violation could remain linked to your name in other databases, and late fees could pile up. Law enforcement says anyone who believes someone is using a plate that doesn’t belong to them should report it.