also, why would it take them 3 years to find a duplicate? it is not like the UK cars are easily sold in other countries... and it is not a new production, when a duplicate is created 2 months ago, all E53 were done in 2006...

do the spec sheets of the both VINs coincide? in other words, the color, the engine, the options trim... I think in the US, the VINs have a check digit, I think it is 7th or 11th character - in BMW the 11th character is the manufacturing plant, for E53s it is always the letter "L", for plant in spartanburg...