The BBC found seven companies on the platform were selling plates without checking customers’ documents and establishing their legal entitlement to the plate.

It is illegal for UK companies to supply number plates without physically seeing documents such as a driving licence or V5 document.

Amazon said all seven products from the companies the BBC investigated had been removed and sales of all number plates would cease apart from novelty plates.

The online retailer said removing the number plates was not an immediate process, and it would take a while for it to take down the items being sold by third party vendors.

Illegal supply allows easy access to number plates, officially known as vehicle registration plates, which criminals can then use to clone.

Number plate cloning involves placing the copied plate on a similar looking vehicle. All fines and penalties are then sent to the innocent owner of the original vehicle.

Last year the BBC revealed a 64% increase over three years in the number of fines cancelled due to car cloning incidents in London.

The BBC bought the number plates on Amazon from seven suppliers who topped the listing on the day of purchase. All the number plates ordered were delivered without the BBC having to produce any documents.

Ruth Cadbury, Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth and chair of the Transport Select Committee, said the BBC’s findings were “hugely troubling”.

One of the firms found selling plates without checking documentation was Wiltshire-based SLS UK Holdings Ltd, which stated it was “DVLA registered” and sold “road legal” number plates.

The company is run by Jordan Daykin, who appeared aged 18 on Dragons’ Den in 2014 and secured £80,000 from Deborah Meaden for a DIY company he is no longer involved with. Mr Daykin refused to comment on the BBC’s findings.

Plastic Services is another that supplied the BBC number plates without the legally required checks.

Also based in Westbury, Wiltshire, it is listed on the DVLA register of suppliers as operating from the same address as SLS UK Holdings Ltd.

Macorley Bivens, the director of Plastic Services and a former business associate and acquaintance of Mr Daykin, declined to respond to the BBC’s questions about its findings when approached for comment both by letter and in person, claiming they required more information to respond.

Defence Line Ltd and Domo Corporation Ltd both delivered plates with no request to see documents. Defence Line did not respond to our request for comment, while Domo Corporation refused to comment saying they needed more information to respond.

Two other companies, Official Plates Ltd and Meena Supplies Ltd, said ID was necessary but both dispatched the plates without any further requests. Official Plates Ltd refused to comment.

In a statement, Meena Supplies Ltd said: “We take compliance with the law very seriously and are committed to upholding all legal and regulatory requirements for the supply of number plates.”

Reg Locker Ltd followed up our purchase with a text message requesting documents to be sent to an email address or via WhatsApp. The BBC ignored the text and the plates were delivered a few days later.

The company said: “Temporary staff have clearly not followed up on the text message requesting the compliance documentation.

“All temporary staff will be retrained in order that no such oversight ever occurs again.”

From 2021 to 2023, about 90,000 penalty charge notices were written off due to number plate cloning.

Stella Roscoe from Leatherhead, Surrey, learned her car was cloned when she received a police letter saying she was being prosecuted for fleeing the scene of an accident in Ilford. Mrs Roscoe says she has never been to Ilford.

“If you get a letter through the door to say you’re going to be prosecuted, it makes you feel awful,” she said.

“You feel like a criminal and I couldn’t understand how this could be because I knew I wasn’t there.”

At the time of the incident, her car was parked in her garage in Leatherhead while she was at a nearby event with 10 other people.

The Metropolitan Police accepted the car’s plates had been cloned, however seven months on the insurance claim against her is ongoing.

Ms Roscoe said she would like plate cloning to carry a prison sentence.

Rob Laugharne, managing director at Hills number plates, one of the biggest suppliers in the country, said he was not surprised by the BBC’s findings.

“That online world of plate supply has unfortunately exploded to a point where it’s got out of control because the regulations to do with plate supply are out of date,” he said.

“The regulations are insisting that you still have to physically see original documentation.”

Hills is running a pilot scheme to demonstrate that digital copies of ID can be used to prove a customer is entitled to a number plate, something other government agencies already do.

The DVLA said: “We work with the police and Trading Standards to take action against suppliers who do not comply with the law.

“A legitimate supplier will always ask to see ID and entitlement documents before selling a number plate. Where this doesn’t happen, members of the public can report this directly to their local Trading Standards.”

Ms Cadbury said the DVLA had told the Transport Committee that the Home Office was due to release a report into the issue of car cloning towards the end of last year.

“We’re still waiting for the outcome of that report, our understanding is a lot of the work was done, I can’t believe the recommendations are too tricky to adopt,” said Ms Cadbury.

The Home Office said: “The cloning and defacing of number plates affects road safety and provides cover for criminals. We are working with the police, the DVLA and other partners to crack down on these crimes.

“We began work on a new Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade, which aims to reduce road deaths and prevent related crime. More details will be shared in due course.”

The move comes just days after Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said it was ending a fact-checking programme criticised by President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans.

In a memo to staff about its decision, which affects, hiring, supplier and training efforts, Meta cited a “shifting legal and policy landscape”.

Walmart and McDonalds are among the other companies to have made similar decisions regarding diversity efforts since Trump won re-election.

In its memo to staff, which was first reported by Axios and confirmed by the BBC, Meta – the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – cited a Supreme Court ruling concerning race in college admissions, while also noting that the term “DEI” (diversity, equity and inclusion) had become “charged”.

The tech giant said it would continue to look for diverse staff, but end its current approach, which seeks to make selections from a pool of diverse candidates.

In a December memo to employees, Amazon said it was “winding down outdated programs and materials” related to representation and inclusion, aiming to complete the process by the end of 2024.

“Rather than have individual groups build programs, we are focusing on programs with proven outcomes — and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture,” Candi Castleberry, Amazon’s VP of inclusive experiences and technology, wrote in the note which was first reported by Bloomberg on Friday.

Financial firms JPMorgan Chase and BlackRock, also pulled out of groups focused on risks from climate change this week.

The moves are a sign of the acceleration of a retreat that started two years ago, as Republicans ramped up attacks on firms such as BlackRock and Disney, accusing them of “woke” progressive activism and threatening political punishment.

Big brands such as Bud Light and Target also faced backlash and boycotts related to their efforts to appeal to LGBTQ customers.

Many of the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were put in place after the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in 2020 following George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police.

Recent court decisions have bolstered critics of the programmes, who said that they were discriminatory.

The Supreme Court in 2023 struck down the right for private universities to consider race in admissions decisions.

Another court of appeals ruling invalidated a Nasdaq policy that would have required companies listed on that stock exchange to have at least one woman, racial minority or LGBTQ person on their board or explain why not.

Meta said it was also ending its efforts to work with suppliers who are “diverse” but will instead focus on small and medium-sized companies.

It also plans to stop offering “equity and inclusion” training and instead offer programmes that “mitigate bias for all, no matter your background”.

Meta declined to comment on the memo, news of which was immediately met with both criticism and celebration.

“I’m sitting back and enjoying every second of this,” said conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who has taken credit for successfully campaigning against the policies at companies such as Ford, John Deere and Harley-Davidson.

LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign said workplace inclusion policies help to attract and retain top staff and had been “directly tied to long-term business growth”.

“Those who abandon these commitments are shirking their responsibility to their employees, consumers, and shareholders” RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, the senior director of the HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program said.

Meta’s move comes just days after the tech giant said it was ending a fact-checking programme criticised by Trump and Republicans.

In a nearly three-hour interview with podcaster Joe Rogan Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said he had always been concerned about being the arbiter of “truth” and was “ill-prepared” when the issue first heated up after the 2016 election.

He said the demands to take down information became unreasonable under the Biden administration. For example, he said the company faced pressure during the pandemic to remove content like statements about vaccine side effects.

That helped to generate a wider political backlash, he said, including his own.

“I feel like I have much greater command now of what I think the policies should be,” he said, adding that he felt the US government “should be defending its companies … not be the tip of the spear attacking”.

“When the US does that to its tech industry, it’s basically just open season around the rest of the world,” he added.

The Teamsters union said Amazon delivery drivers at seven facilities in the US had walked off the job on Thursday, after the company refused to negotiate with the union about a labour contract.

Teamsters members were demonstrating at “hundreds” of other Amazon locations, according to the union, which described it as the “largest strike” in US history involving the firm.The company, which employs roughly 800,000 people in its US delivery network, said its services would not be disrupted.

It was not clear how many people were participating in Thursday’s action, which was joined by members of the United Services Union (ver.di) in Germany.

In the US, the Teamsters union said thousands of Amazon workers were involved.

Overall, the group claims to represent “nearly 10,000” Amazon workers, after signing up thousands of people at about 10 locations across the country, many of them in the last few months.

The organisation has demanded recognition from Amazon, accusing the company of illegally ignoring its duty to negotiate collectively over pay and working conditions.

“They’ve pushed workers to the limit and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them,” said the union’s general president, Sean O’Brien.

“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”

The Teamsters is a storied US union, with more than one million members overall. It is known for winning robust contracts for members at firms such as delivery giant UPS.

Most of the Teamsters’ Amazon campaigns have involved drivers technically employed by third-party delivery firms that work with the tech giant.

Amazon denies that it is on the hook as an employer in those cases, a question that is currently the subject of legal dispute. Labour officials have preliminarily sided with the union on the issue in at least one instance.

Amazon employees at a major warehouse in Staten Island in New York have also agreed to affiliate with the Teamsters.

Their warehouse holds the distinction as the only Amazon location in the US where a union victory has been formally ratified by labour officials.

But it has seen little progress when it comes to contract negotiations since the 2022 vote. It was not among the locations listed to go on strike on Thursday.

Amazon, one of the largest employers in the US, has long faced criticism of its working conditions and been the target of activists hoping to make inroads among its workers.Its fierce opposition to unionisation efforts has also been called into question.

But it is not the only business facing pressure over its refusal to come to the table about a contract years after the start of unionisation efforts.

At Starbucks, where the first coffee shop voted to unionise in 2021, workers also recently authorised a labour strike, accusing the company of dragging its feet on negotiations.

The findings, following an 18-month probe of the firm, support claims that workers and labour campaigners have made about the company for years.

The report accused the firm of rejecting changes that would have reduced workers’ pace, but improved safety because of concerns about its bottom line.

But Amazon said the report was “wrong on the facts”, and featured “selective, outdated information that lacks context and isn’t grounded in reality”.

“This investigation wasn’t a fact-finding mission, but rather an attempt to collect information and twist it to support a false narrative,” the company said.

Amazon, which employs roughly 800,000 people in the US, has faced accusations about unsafe conditions at its warehouses for years.

Those concerns ramped up during the Covid pandemic, when e-commerce exploded, leading to protests by its workers around the world.

Amid the controversy, founder Jeff Bezos said the company needed to do better by its employees.

Senator Sanders, who is known for his pro-worker stance, launched an investigation into Amazon’s practices in June 2023. Senate staffers conducted 135 interviews and reviewed more than 1,000 documents.

Their analysis of public records found that warehouses operated by Amazon recorded over 30% more injuries than the warehousing industry average in 2023.

Amazon workers were also nearly twice as likely to be injured than people working in warehouses operated by other companies in each of the last seven years, according to the report, which was signed off by Democratic members of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Circular economy minister Mary Creagh said planned reforms would create a “level playing field” for electronics producers by putting more onus on international retailers to contribute to recycling costs.

Some foreign sellers have been able to avoid this charge by selling via online marketplaces, leaving UK-based firms such as Currys to foot much of the bill.

Firms which produce e-cigarettes will also be asked to pay more, with the plans not coming into action until January, 2026.

“Under these new plans, online marketplaces – Amazon, eBay and others – will face much tougher obligations to ensure that overseas sellers who use their platforms contribute to that cost of collection and recycling,” Creagh told PA News.

The minister is responsible for the UK government’s commitment to a circular economy, which is the idea of reusing, repairing, and the sharing of materials and products to live in a more environmentally sustainable world.

Amazon said it is “committed to minimising waste and helping our customers to reuse, repair, and recycle their products”. It says it offers customers free recycling options including home pick-up via its website.Other major online marketplaces eBay, Temu and Euronics have not commented yet.

The plans will bring an end to vapes being categorised alongside toys, leisure and sports equipment for recycling purposes.

Instead, a new category for e-waste specifically from vapes will be introduced.

UK non-profit Material Focus estimates five million vapes are either littered or thrown away in general waste every week in the UK.

And it estimates British households throw away over 100,000 tonnes of smaller household electrical items, such as kettles and lamps every year.

Elfbar, one of the UK’s leading vape brands said it welcomed the change.

“We are committed to providing products that reduce waste and are working with retailers to support them through regulatory changes while ensuring adult smokers and ex-smokers get continued access to smoking alternatives,” said a spokesperson.

The government will also require online marketplaces to register with the Environment Agency and report UK sales from their overseas sellers.

This data will be used to calculate the financial contribution the online marketplaces must make towards the costs of recycling e-waste.

The UK government said the new obligations will be enforced by the Environment Agency and equivalent regulators in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The government says the move will help fund recycling services.

“We welcome the government’s new measures to help level the playing field for responsibility for waste, making online marketplaces do their part,” said Currys boss Alex Baldock.

“Low value, low quality and unsustainable tech is piling up in landfills, and it’s good to see government doing something to tackle that.”

An inspection was launched after reports emerged of an incident in May, where Amazon workers at the facility, located near Manesar in the state of Haryana, were asked to take verbal pledges not to take breaks, including for drinking water or using the toilet, until they met their targets for the day.

Amazon calls its warehouses “fulfilment centres”.

An internal investigation by the company confirmed that a manager requested such a pledge as part of a “motivational exercise”. Amazon called the incident “unfortunate and isolated” in a letter to India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment in June, stating that disciplinary action had been taken against the manager. Amazon has not specified what action was taken against the executive.

That same month, the local Haryana government conducted a “detailed investigation” through labour inspections at the Amazon warehouse.

Amazon failed to provide workers with the required safety gear and did not maintain proper records, as required by law, at its warehouse. “Tight-fitting clothes are not provided to the female workers on or near the moving machinery,” according to an observation made in the labour inspection report. It is not clear whether safe clothes are provided to male workers.

Working while wearing loose clothing near moving machinery is viewed as a potential occupational safety hazard as it could lead to injuries if clothes get entangled in the machine. Under India’s labour law regulations, workers need to wear tight-fitting clothes while working near moving machinery.

The labour inspection report accused Amazon of not providing employment identity cards to its warehouse workers near Manesar.

The Haryana government took Amazon to a court in the Delhi suburb of Gurugram in June, where it submitted the labour inspection report as evidence to back its case. The judge, Amit Gautam, in an order on July 6, summoned Amazon to be present before the court on October 28. However, the case was adjourned, with the next hearing now slated for December 10.

“We haven’t been provided a copy of the Labour Office’s inspection report and hence cannot comment on it. Also, the matter is now sub-judice, so we cannot comment on other attributes of the Court filings noted in your inquiry,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

Amazon employs 1.5 million workers globally, including more than 100,000 people in India, from blue-collar workers deployed for warehouse packaging and delivery drivers to executives managing sales and marketing and AI specialists working on Amazon’s cloud computing firm, Amazon Web Services.

At the Manesar warehouse, which helps Amazon deliver products to the national capital region of the country, there are more than 1,800 associates – a term the e-commerce company uses for its warehouse workers.

Amazon’s warehouse associates play a crucial role in processing and preparing the company’s online deliveries. Some workers receive, check and sort the delivery products, while others pick, pack and ship the customer orders, while relocating products within the warehouse and loading trucks.

Amazon has more than 60 such fulfilment centres across India.In recent years, Amazon’s treatment of workers has come under increased scrutiny, especially in the West, including the United Kingdom and the United States.

Amazon’s workers clock in a total of 10 hours at the Manesar warehouse. That includes two 30-minute breaks.

However, their work requires them to stand for the rest of the nine hours.“We have to do all the tasks assigned to us on our feet. We are not allowed to even sit,” Supriya*, who works at the inbound department of the warehouse, said. Workers in the inbound department handle products that arrive in the warehouse from manufacturers and sellers.

Workers unload products and help in organising and storing them.Supriya said that the two 30-minute work breaks are insufficient. “We do have a canteen to go and rest, but the break of 30 minutes is too short for us to use the toilet, access our lockers, stand in the queue of the cafeteria, rest properly and come back to our workstation, all within that time window. There is no separate place to rest as well,” she said.

Amazon also acknowledged in its response to India’s Labour and Employment Ministry that it offers no other place for the workers to rest or sit other than the cafeteria.

“Our cafeterias are air-conditioned, comfortable and have adequate seating arrangement,” Amazon said in the June 24 letter to the Indian government. In addition to the two 30-minute breaks, Amazon said that workers are “free to [and] regularly take informal breaks”.

Amazon told the Indian government that the company is evaluating whether it can arrange for additional seating arrangements through cafeterias at the warehouse.

But Supriya disputed Amazon’s claim that workers frequently take informal breaks.They simply can’t afford to, she said.