Illegal number plates

Cameras foiled by ‘Euro’ plates

New scam to help fraudsters get away with motoring offences

Auto Express Car Reviews

24th January 2008

Crooks and fraudsters have developed a new tactic in their battle against detection by the UK’s network of traffic cameras.

Police have told Auto Express that the latest trick is to use car number plates that fool roadside devices into thinking a vehicle is foreign-registered. But while the tactics work on some cameras, cops say many will still pick them up and warned drivers not to try it. The plates, which are available online, are made of non-reflective metal and feature letters in Euro-style fonts and colours.

But what can cause problems for some Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras is the way the digits are spaced, plus the use of hyphens and ‘stadt seals’, the circular picture badges used to indicate the city in which a car is registered. Police constable Luigi Guerriero, an expert in number plate recognition with the Bedfordshire Police force, said: “Certain cameras will pick up these plates, but some won’t because all they see is a foreign plate.”

As with other types of ‘show plate’ that use different typefaces, these Euro-style ones don’t meet DVLA regulations and are illegal for road use. Many of the websites we found offering the plates state that in the small print, but it doesn’t prevent operators from selling them.