Car use in ‘attack’ had cloned registration

A CAR that allegedly struck two police officers in what prosecutors say was an attempted murder bid had “cloned” number plates, a court heard.

Jurors heard how detectives checked the registration plate of a burned-out Nissan Qashqai hours after PC Deborah Lawson and PC Robert Fitzsimmons suffered injuries in Banner Drive, Glasgow.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how the plate was registered to a woman from Renfrew who owned the same kind of vehicle.

Yesterday, Detective Constable Derick Lunnan, 39, told the court that investigators concluded that someone had copied the woman’s registration.

The court heard officers made the discovery hours after the alleged October 23, 2016, incident.

He said the copied registration had been attached to the Qashqai, which had been set alight in a street less than two miles from where PCs Lawson and Fitzsimmons came under attack.

When prosecution lawyer Tim Niven Smith asked DC Lunnan what the name given to the practice of copying registrations, the officer replied: “I personally would refer to it as cloned plates.”

The police officer was giving evidence on the fifth day of proceedings against David McLean, 31, and 25-year-old Ryan Gilmour. The two men, from Glasgow, have pled not guilty to a number of charges.

Prosecutors allege that both McLean and Gilmour attempted to murder PC Lawson and PC Fitzsimmons by reversing a Nissan Qashqai towards them and repeatedly hitting them with the vehicle.

The trial continues.