Car security Number plates and car registration
Number plate suppliers
Since 2003, all UK number plate suppliers – there are around 40,000 of them – have had to be registered with the DVLA.
Customers needing a new number plate must provide proof of identity and entitlement to display the registration mark, such as the car’s V5C.
And in November 2008 it became an offence to supply number plates that don’t comply with specific regulations on appearance – for example on the spacing of letters, and the need to show the number-plate-maker’s mark.
But is this number plate system secure enough? Among our police contacts, the feeling was that, though they enforce the new number plate requirements when they spot offenders, this is a relatively low priority. And such rules won’t deter organised criminals from committing car fraud.
The Met’s Stolen Vehicle team highlighted a recent court case in Kent where Richard Shepherd, who ran a DVLA-registered number plate supplier, was jailed for his role in laundering £38m worth of stolen cars.
His shop in Swanley is said to have been a front for changing the identity of around 1,800 high-value vehicles. Perhaps surprisingly, though Shepherd was jailed, the business is still officially licensed to supply number plates.
Read the Which? guide to avoiding car crime and the Which? guide to the best car security features.
Why number plates are a problem
We asked Bill Shouler, from the British Number Plate Manufacturers’ Association, how such crime can happen under the DVLA’s watch.
He said: ‘There is inevitably a problem of monitoring 40,000-plus registered number plate suppliers. There’s also a problem with the illegal supply of number plates for car “cloning”, particularly from unregistered outlets – for example internet and offshore suppliers.’
‘Anecdotal evidence suggests the incidence of illegal number plates is increasing, and the current scale of the problem is currently being researched by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in conjunction with the Department for Transport (DfT).'
Tightening up the number plate system
There have been efforts to tighten up the number plate system, as Peter Stratton of Essex Trading Standards told us:
‘The legislation brought in a few years ago to control the supply of number plates...certainly makes it more difficult for ordinary folk to get them, but it won’t stop hardened criminals.’
Stratton continued: ‘It could have gone further, but the technology wasn’t quite mature enough. Examples considered included an electronic chip in the number plate, and a matching chip in the vehicle, both to be read by a machine.
'This could make changing a vehicle’s identity or using false number plates more difficult.’
Shouler told us: ‘There is clearly a problem. The DVLA highlighted this as long ago as 2002 in a consultation paper on plate security.
'Discussions have been underway since then, with two outcomes so far: the Registration of Suppliers scheme and the development of a (voluntary) DVLA standard for theft-resistant number plates.
'This has to be seen in the context of an expansion of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) activity.’
Edmund King, president of the AA, reckons police are fighting a losing battle against car fraud in the absence of a more secure car registration system.
‘Despite laws on number plate issue toughening up, there are online suppliers and “showplate” producers who beat the system. It appears that plans for electronic plates have been abandoned, so we are reliant on existing number plates.’
The UK is home to some of the best car criminals
Automatic number plate recognition
'ANPR checks help to cut down on fraud but don’t always spot a clone,’ King says. ‘And unfortunately for us, the UK has some of the best car criminals in the business.’
Mike Franklin, strategic head of crime prevention for Northamptonshire Police, told us: 'What remains clear is that a range of technological systems that monitor vehicles on the road are circumvented by the ‘massive’ small proportion of non-compliers.
'The gravity of offences associated with deliberate plate abuse will also vary by degree, from cherished plate tweaks and speed camera and congestion charge evasion, through to serious organised criminal activity.
'Stolen motor vehicles sold on invariably have false number plates fitted to go with false documentation.
'All present a problem to the authorities, and associated financial costs can be either minimal or colossal depending on which end of the non-compliance spectrum you focus.
'The personal costs in terms of injury or loss of life through speed camera evasion are potentially even more significant.’
