“There is an evident, serious – and wholly unnecessary – vulnerability to the integrity of the national ANPR system which has implications for national security, law enforcement and the public interest related functions which rely on its data,” said Mr Porter. If that 6pc figure were reproduced on a nationwide level up to two million motorists could be using altered plates.Ī second police exercise found that around 40 per cent of taxi and private hire vehicles had coatings applied to their number plates that made them unreadable to ANPR cameras. Mr Porter pointed to two police investigations – one where an ANPR camera trained on vehicles travelling on two lanes of a carriageway into Gatwick in June this year found 41 – or 6 per cent – of the 683 number plates had been doctored. “This problem is growing, as is borne out by current police experience.” “The current regime in this country renders the unlawful manufacture and use of number plates and the fitting of number plates which are unreadable to the ANPR system, a relatively easy undertaking with little risk of such an act being detected by the relevant authorities. In a letter to Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, seen by The Telegraph, he said: “There is a paucity of any credible or effective controls which govern the production, manufacture and supply of materials to construct number plates, nor are there any meaningful security provisions for the number plates themselves. Mr Porter called for a certification system for businesses selling number plates, increased fines for those found guilty of cloning them and the inclusion of security features within the plates themselves to distinguish them from fakes. The lack of regulation of the market for plates means we are exposing people to criminality,” he said. A lot of people will think they don’t want to embark on criminal damage of Ulez cameras but will be tempted to doctor their number plate to save £12 a day. Mr Porter, also a former assistant chief constable with Greater Manchester Police, said there was “no doubt” the expanded Ulez zone in Greater London and growth of ANPR would lead to more motorists being tempted to fake or doctor their number plates to avoid the emission zone charges, fines for speeding or points on their licence. The problem has been highlighted by a police investigation in June that found 6 per cent of cars had some form of “ANPR-defeating material” on their number plates, according to a report prepared for ministers by Tony Porter, the former surveillance camera commissioner. Government advisers have warned that controls on the sale of fake plates are so lax that the number of motorists seeking to evade detection is expected to rocket following the expansion of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to police new Ulez areas and 20mph speed limits.įake number plates can be bought for as little as £10 from any of the 40,000 largely unregulated sellers while reflective “stealth” tape to make plates invisible to ANPR infrared cameras can be purchased online for just £80. Up to one in 15 motorists – some two million – could be doctoring their number plates to avoid being caught by cameras enforcing Ulez zones and speed limits, a police investigation has suggested.
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