AN East Ham driver whose car number plate was cloned has been inundated with parking tickets amounting to nearly £6,000.

Saleem Sabbir, 21, manages Wellwear in Walthamstow High Street, a business his family has run for several years.

Mr Sabbir used to drive to the shop where he works six days a week, parking in an authorised space.

He insists the tickets issued by several London boroughs for parking illegally in places "he's never even been to" are not his.

He has since been forced to declare his car off the road to save it being snatched by bailiffs who come knocking on his door to collect the fines.

Mr Sabbir suspects the parking fines have been racked up by an illegal driver who has a similar car, using fake licence plates.

This claim was affirmed by Transport for London (TfL) when Mr Sabbir contested fines issued for driving in the central zone and in a bus lane.

TfL agreed he did not commit the offences and the vehicle in photographs taken by CCTV cameras was not his. A TfL spokesman confirmed: "We have identified the vehicle as being ringed."

Mr Sabbir refuses to pay on more than 20 tickets issued by London boroughs because he has never even been to these areas.

He has six outstanding tickets issued in Waltham Forest, eight in Newham, three in Redbridge, two in Haringey and four in Westminster. What started out as £25 and £50 parking tickets has increased to over £300 each because of the delay in payment.

Bailiffs have been visiting his home since December to collect outstanding fines amounting to £5,838 which would take Mr Sabbir more than a year to pay off.

He insists his car was not parked illegally at the times stated on the tickets, and his mother, his employer, supports his claims.

Mr Sabbir said: "I contacted the DVLA but they said they can't do anything until I've sorted all the tickets out. After that they can give me a new number plate."

He added: "I can't even park my car outside my house and I have declared it off the road so the baliffs don't take it. I have to use public transport to get to work."

A Waltham Forest Council spokeswoman said: "We're going to look into this further and if we can confirm the car has been cloned we would not pursue the fines."

The DVLA is currently working on a range of measures to address the problem of cloned number plates, and suggests that those who suspect their vehicles have been cloned should contact the police.