Head of uninsured driving prevention at the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, Martin Saunders, explained ghost number plates can also help uninsured hit-and-run drivers avoid justice.
“The increasing damage done by drivers of vehicles hiding in plain sight on our road system should not be tolerated,” Saunders said. “There is an urgent need for a partnership approach to implement the recommendations made in this report to make our road system safer, and ensure every vehicle is able to be quickly and readily be identified by the number plate it exhibits.”
In the UK, number plate suppliers must be registered and approved by the DVLA. However, the report found that many of the nation’s over 34,000 approved suppliers were working out of rudimentary homes, garages and workshops with no background checks in place. Some were even found to have serious criminal records, including a history of violent acts and fraud.
Labour MP for West Bromwich and APPGTS member, Sarah Coombes, claimed the current system is “failing” and said the “explosive report lays bare the threat posed by ghost and cloned plates”.
She added: “It’s totally wrong that people can commit terrible crimes and then set themselves up as number plate sellers with no questions asked. Those selling these illegal plates have gone under the radar for too long – but now they’ve been rumbled.”
The APPGTS recommends that the Government overhauls the entire number plate system by standardising design and banning vanity plates such as 3D and 4D designs. This, under the APPGTS’s proposals, would be enforced and checked at every MoT test, while fines would be increased and the police given the power to seize the vehicles of repeat offenders.
As for the suppliers, the APPGTS suggests the introduction of annual DVLA licence fees, as well as background and regular audit checks. This all remains a proposal for now, though, because an official parliamentary bill would need to be drafted and subsequently debated and voted upon in order to gain Royal Assent and become law.
Michael Flanagan, the chairman of the British Number Plate Manufacturers Association, said: “‘The BNMA will support the proposed level of regulation during and after its implementation by providing compliant resources and enhancing its guidance to outlets, authorities, and the public, thereby safeguarding public safety through a secure and regulated supply system.”
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