DVLA update on ‘invisible’ number plates evading speed cameras – key details

Need to know

The Department for Transport has issued a new update on the plates

What you need to know as DVLA struggles to tackle number plates crisis

• The Department for Transport has revealed that just 13 DVLA staff are tasked with monitoring nearly 35,000 number plate suppliers amid a growing crisis with ‘ghost plates’ that help criminals evade detection.
• A parliamentary report found that as many as one in 15 vehicles on British roads have altered, non-compliant plates that are invisible to police Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems.
• The All Party Parliamentary Group for Transport warned that “the UK’s outdated and poorly regulated number plate system has created a vast and rapidly growing crisis that enables criminals and organised crime groups to operate undetected on our road network.”
• A former police officer told the BBC that ghost plates have been used by people linked to “violence against young women and girls, people smuggling, drug smuggling and other forms of organised criminality.”
• The Royal College of Policing noted that vehicles with ghost plates “were found to be involved in armed robberies and burglaries, used by sex offenders or involved in road traffic collisions.”
• Councils are now introducing new technology to combat the problem, with enforcement officers being provided with specially developed cameras designed to detect the elusive plates.
• Drivers caught using these illegal plates could face a £100 fine as authorities crack down on what experts describe as a ‘staggeringly simple’ system to fool.
• READ THE FULL STORY: DVLA ‘invisible’ number plates update over ‘serious problem’ on UK roads