VEHICLE buyers are being warned to beware they could be unwittingly buying a cloned car, resulting in a loss of thousands of pounds.Norfolk couple Melanie Scales and Philip Turney were victims of car cloning when they bought their Nissan Navara after spotting it on a website.

VEHICLE buyers are being warned to beware they could be unwittingly buying a cloned car, resulting in a loss of thousands of pounds.

Norfolk couple Melanie Scales and Philip Turney were victims of car cloning when they bought their Nissan Navara after spotting it on a website.

The couple, who live in Swanton Abbot, have now taken the decision to speak out about the incident in a bid to prevent other buyers falling foul of such a crime.

DC Chris Woodcock, from the police's Organised Vehicle Crime Unit, said: “The cloned vehicle was purchased from an address outside of Norfolk, for a price that was deemed to be about the going rate - sometimes such vehicles are offered for sale at significantly cheaper rates.

“The innocent purchasers believed that they had done all that they could to verify the vehicle's provenance.

“They are now extremely frustrated at what has happened to them and want to highlight the issue in a bid to prevent other people falling victim to the same scam.”

The 4x4 had been stolen from an address in Terrington in October.