Police are carrying out forensics after picking up a stolen car.

A plainclothes unit on patrol in the Oxhey area spotted the Skoda in Lincoln Drive at around 7pm on Tuesday (November 28) and identified that it was displaying cloned number plates.

It was discovered that it had been stolen in Hemel Hempstead in mid-October and Herts Police officers forensically recovered it so that it can be examined by specialist scenes of crime officers, who will try to identify who had stolen the car.

Criminals use stolen or duplicated copies of other vehicles’ number plates to carry out further crime, or to avoid paying speeding or parking fines, police explained.

Watford Observer: The vehicle in Lincoln Drive.The vehicle in Lincoln Drive. (Image: Herts Police)

“Another happy victim who will be getting their much-needed car back,” the force added.

The “proactive” patrol was carried out by officers from the Operation Scorpion unit, which operates largely plain-clothed and unmarked, targeting burglars and robbers as well as drug and vehicle crime.