THE Tory MP for Scarborough and Whitby has called for a legal loophole allowing anyone to clone a car registration number to be closed - after buying an exact replica of the plate on the Prime Minister's Jaguar.

Shadow roads minister Robert Goodwill, said it took him ten minutes to order the cloned car plate using the internet and a credit card.

He fears criminals could exploit the legal loophole - without breaking the law.

Mr Goodwill said no checks are demanded from the manufacturers of socalled showplates. These are plates carrying words, letters or numbers dictated by a customer online or over the phone, which are theoretically only used off-road, at events like motor shows or in car showrooms.

But there is little difference in size, materials or lettering between genuine registration plates and most showplates.

Mr Goodwill, a former member of the Commons transport select committee, acknowledged the Government had made "sensible moves" recently to tighten up the regulation of number plate suppliers, but said it was now time to investigate online showplate shops.

He said: "You can drive a coach and horses through the loophole, which is someone saying they want to buy a plate for show purposes instead of a registration plate, " he said.

The MP said as the Prime Minister's Jaguar arrived off Parliament Square he jotted down the number and later typed the word "showplate" into a web search engine, and found a host of UK companies offering made-to-order plates.