Motorists are rendering speed cameras useless by fitting ‘invisible’ licence plates to their vehicles, authorities have warned. The rogue drivers are dodging fines with so-called ‘ghost plates’ which elude detection from both speed and bus lane cameras.
These illicit plates, also referred to as 3D or 4D, are now being targeted by police armed with pioneering tech designed to spot the lawbreakers. Previously, a top official responsible for the UK’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition system highlighted that around one in 15 motorists were outwitting the technology, an issue described as ‘staggeringly simple’ by former Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner Professor Fraser Sampson.
He flagged his concerns in a resignation letter to Mark Harper, the Tory government’s Transport Secretary, lamenting the lack of action against this widespread manipulation. Councils, stepping up their game, are obtaining sophisticated cameras capable of ‘seeing’ these troublesome plates.
Wolverhampton has taken the lead, with council enforcers equipped with advanced cameras to spearhead the initiative. Offenders found with these nefarious plates could face a stiff £100 penalty.
Councillor Craig Collingswood, Wolverhampton City Council’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, spoke to BirminghamLive, announcing: “Wolverhampton is leading the way as the first council investing in this state-of-the-art technology to deter and detect offenders.”
In an urgent appeal to Mark Harper, Prof Sampson has laid bare the cunning methods used by motorists dodging fines. His letter reveals how rogue drivers clone number plates, use reflective tape, and purchase ‘stealth plates’ to slip away from speeding penalties and low-emission zone charges.
However, there’s a glaring issue in the plate recognition system, with a 97 percent accuracy rate resulting in a shocking 2.4 million misread plates daily, which could mean unwarranted fines for law-abiding citizens. Rolling stats indicate that on any typical day, about 15,400 traffic cameras keenly observe UK roads, generating between 75 and 80 million reads – sometimes exceeding 80 million.
Prof Sampson warns this could escalate to 100 million reads per day by the end of 2024, as he highlighted the necessity of bus lanes and speed cameras for public safety, stating: “Bus lanes are essential for the public transport network to operate efficiently and speed cameras help to keep the public safe from speeding vehicles and reduce the likelihood of a crash. All motorists can expect to pay a fine if found to be using these illegal methods to avoid cameras and taxi drivers licensed by Wolverhampton may have their licence suspended or revoked.”
Prof Sampson warned: “For all its technological advancement and operational indispensability, the ANPR system still relies ultimately on a piece of plastic affixed to either end of a vehicle. Served by a wholly unregulated market, what my predecessor termed the humble number plate represents a single and readily assailable point of failure with the ANPR network being easily defeated by the manufacture and sale of stealth plates, cloned registration marks and other rudimentary obscurant tactics.”
He added: “The result is that the ability to frustrate the ANPR system remains staggeringly simple at a time when proper reliance on it for key public services such as policing, law enforcement and traffic management is increasing daily. Emission zones and other strategic traffic enforcement schemes put motorists in situations where they have to make significant financial choices and it is at least arguable that the incentives for some to ‘game’ the ANPR systems have never been greater.”
He further explained: “Merely by applying reflective tape to distort part of a registration plate or purchasing stealth plates from online vendors, motorists can confuse and confound current number plate recognition technology and both of these are easily obtainable. One recent estimate suggested that one in fifteen drivers may already be using anti-ANPR technology; it is reasonable to expect this conduct to increase as the reliance on ANPR for new traffic management schemes continues.”