A victim of vehicle registration fraud says he is “terrified” he might get blamed if a crime occurs in his name or there’s an accident.

The man, who we are naming Max Doe, is calling for more to be done to protect him and other people caught in the same situation.

He told KentOnline how he first received what is called a V5C document through his letterbox for a Nissan X-Trail he did not own on June 7.

Since then, there has been three other successful registrations including two Audi A3s and a Mercedes-Benz C-Class throughout October, November and December.

And although Max has suspicions of who may be behind the registrations, so far his reports to Action Fraud have not been passed to the police for investigation.

In addition, there has been one failed V5C registration for a motorbike. And despite reporting each incident to the DVLA, police and Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud, Max says he has largely been left to “deal with it alone”.

He says Kent Police told him it could not be investigated, while Action Fraud only offered an online portal for reporting with no further updates provided.

Meanwhile, despite hours of calls and web chats with the DVLA, he was instructed to submit his concerns via post because they did not accept emails for such cases.

Talking of the ordeal, the 43-year-old said: “First time I was scared, second time, absolutely petrified, by the third time, I’ve got no choice, if the DVLA or Action Fraud won’t investigate the best I can do is cover myself, everything I’m doing is just covering myself.”

As a result, Max has kept a record of all V5C documents, reports to Action Fraud and the DVLA, adding: “I was terrified, I’ve never heard of this before, you just think something’s going to happen and I’m going to get blamed for it.”

With each offence, the victim has had the document through the door with his name and address despite never seeing or owning any of the vehicles.

He also noted both his old and new address were targeted by the fraudster.

Max added: “Worst call is one of the vehicles will be involved in an accident, or it’s going to be involved in a crime, then the police will come after me – everything I’m doing is to cover me just to show them.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of something like this happening, it really is strange.”

Now, each time a new registration comes through, Max is left to spend hours contacting the authorities to log the incident but says the reporting systems don’t seem to be made to handle such type of fraud.

Taking matters into his own hands, he found the Nissan X-Trail, which had been registered was being advertised on Facebook Marketplace, so he told the DVLA, police and Action Fraud, however, he claims the agencies took no further action.

Max said: “None of the organisations seem to be taking this seriously.

“It’s incredibly frustrating to be passed from one agency to another without anyone actually investigating or preventing further misuse of my personal details.”

The Gravesend resident, who currently owns just own vehicle, now wants more to be done to protect individuals from vehicle registration fraud and for an investigation into the perpetrator to take place.

After submitting letters and reports to all the authorities, Max says the only action taken was to remove his name from the fraudulent registration, but he says this doesn’t go far enough as the problem keeps happening.

After KentOnline got in contact with the DVLA, Max says he received a call for the first time from an employee who said it would be making a block against his address so no new application could be made without being investigated.

A DVLA spokesman said: “It is an offence to knowingly provide false information or documents to the DVLA.

“If DVLA is made aware of an error on the vehicle record, such as an incorrect address, we will remove the details from the record upon receipt of satisfactory evidence.”

It is understood that in the event of fraud being uncovered, the DVLA will liaise with the police and relevant authorities.

All reports made to Action Fraud are sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) which is run by the City of London Police.

Claire Webb, acting director of Action Fraud, said that Max’s three reports between June and October were assessed by the NFIB but had not been passed to the police for investigation “at this time”.

It is understood that once a report has been analysed a victim will be informed if it has been passed to a police force, as neither Action Fraud or the NFIB have investigative powers.

Claire added: “They will continue to be reviewed against new information received from new reports made to Action Fraud.

“Over 850,000 reports are made to the NFIB every year and not all cases can be passed on for further investigation.

“Reports are assessed against a number of criteria, but not every case of fraud will result in a judicial outcome.

“Reports are vital in helping the police develop intelligence and take disruptive activity to prevent other people from falling victim, such as taking down websites, telephone numbers and email addresses linked to fraud.”

She also added that when a report can not be passed to a police force another option is to contact the National Economic Crime Victim Care Unit (NECVU) who help victims to reclaim money lost.

In addition, Claire stated that Action Fraud had received another report this month from Max, which is currently being assessed by the NFIB and City of London Police.

What do you do if this happens to you?

If you receive a fine or letter for a vehicle that’s not yours, you must report it to the DVLA or organisation that sent it to you and tell them you do not own the vehicle.

If you’ve never been the registered keeper, you should write to the DVLA to ask for proof that you’re not the registered keeper.

The website gov.uk says you should “give them as much information about the vehicle as possible”.

The DVLA will then update their records and send a letter of confirmation to you within four weeks.