Car in Dublin crash had used ‘cloned’ registration number

A motorist, whose car registration number was cloned, has successfully fought off a €60,000 damages claim against him in the Circuit Civil Court for alleged personal injuries.

Judge Petria McDonnell said she did not believe that interpreter Waheed Ullah Ahmadzai had been involved in a road traffic accident and accepted instead that an unidentified individual had copied and used his registration number illegally on their vehicle which had been involved in a crash.

Cillian Mills, of Edenvale, Grange Road, Rathfarnham, Dublin, told the court he had been engaged in some last minute Christmas shopping in December 2013 at Nutgrove Shopping Centre in Rathfarnham and, while stopped at a junction, felt a jolt and realised the back of his vehicle had been hit.

Mr Mills (32) said he got out of his car to see who had collided with him and saw a man of Arabic decent with a full beard and white gown walking towards him. This man had written down his name and address as Adi Khan but before “Khan” had pulled away Mr Mills had noted his registration number had later given it to the Garda.

Mr Mills said he had suffered shoulder and neck pain following the accident and self- medicated on painkillers before later attending his doctor and receiving physiotherapy.

Barrister Mark Dunne, counsel for Ahmadzai, in cross-examination asked Mr Mills if the alleged Adi Khan was in court. Mr Mills said he was not and told Mr Dunne that his client, Mr Ahmadzai, was not the man who had been driving the vehicle that collided with him.

Ahmadzai, of Loretto Road, Rathfarnham, told the court that gardaí­ had traced the registration of the car involved in the collision at the Nutgrove Shopping Centre to his home address.

Investigating gardaí had referred to him as Mr Khan and he had told them this was not his name and that he had not been involved in the accident they had referred to.

Mr Ahmadzai told Mr Dunne, who appeared with Ennis and Associates solicitors, that his car had been re-registered in his wife’s name and afterwards they had begun to receive eFlow toll bills they had not been responsible for.

The bills had been accompanied with Toll pictures of a Nissan Almera, a vehicle that had never been theirs, but which carried the registration of the Ahmadzai family Toyota Corrolla.

Judge McDonnell told Mr Dunne that she accepted the eFlow bills and pictures as proof that his client’s vehicle registration had been cloned and that he had not given his car to anyone else.