edition 6/2006

Regwise Newsletter: Numberplate News

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Foreign Number Plates Cause Fines Headache Police and the local council in Barnet are seeking ways to tackle the increasing problem of unpaid parking tickets issued to cars with foreign number plates in the area. The magnitude of the problem has increased by more than 2,000 percent in the last 2 years. The number of cars bearing foreign registrations presents a significant problem in locating drivers who use their cars to commit a range of crimes ranging from illegal parking and speeding to more serious offences. Figures show that in the year before May 1 2004 (which is when Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the EU) there were only 50 fines left unpaid by the drivers of cars registered outside of the UK. For a similar period in 2005-06 the figure was 1,107. The total volume of parking tickets issued to foreign-registered cars almost doubled in the same period, and although the link between the EU expansion and the growth in the number of unpaid fines has yet to be officially confirmed, police have noticed an increase in eastern European number plates on the borough's roads. A planned change to legislation later this year will enable councils to confiscate or clamp vehicles with unpaid penalties, although Barnet has not yet confirmed that it plans to use these powers. A police spokesperson said: "Ever since Britain entered the European Community, cars from all over Europe have been legally brought to Britain in much the same way as UK drivers have been allowed to take their cars into Europe. Officers are unable to routinely access each others' databases to check on these vehicles or the drivers." It is legal to drive a car with a foreign number plate in the UK for up to six months. The Figures: Below are the numbers of fines issued to foreign-registered cars in Barnet (still unpaid in brackets) 2003-04: 1,273 (50) 2004-05: 1,321 (220) 2005-06: 2,172 (1,107)

New Number Plates Intended to Thwart Criminals A new design of "thief-proof" car number plates is being introduced by the government. The new plates are designed to inconvenience thieves who steal vehicle registration plates and use them to disguise or "clone" other vehicles. Since the introduction of congestion charges in some cities, car cloning has become increasingly widespread. The process involves replacing a vehicle's registration plates with those stolen from another vehicle. Any charges run up by failing to pay congestion charges, or by exceeding speed limits in speed camera locations, are then sent to the owner of the innocent vehicle from which the plates were stolen. Cloning is also used in petrol theft from service stations and in selling stolen cars. The new anti-theft plates, which break up and become useless when prised off a car, will be launched by roads minister Stephen Ladyman. It is thought that the cost of the new kind of plates will be about twice that of standard plastic number plates, and they should be available in the autumn. It is reported that there are no plans to make them compulsory. The Department for Transport has said that strict standards have been set for the new number plates, and they claim it will take at least three minutes to prise them from a car. Mr Ladyman said the new plates would help to reduce the number of innocent drivers receiving fines. "They will also help to reduce vehicle cloning where stolen vehicles are sold on to unsuspecting motorists, and tackle the problem of petrol station 'drive-offs'," he said. Number plate theft has increased dramatically in the last few years, and records suggest there are now an astonishing 33,000 cases a year. Police have welcomed the introduction of the theft-proof registration plates. They describe number plate theft as a "growing problem".

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