Labour MP Sarah Coombes has introduced a new bill in Parliament aimed at cracking down on drivers using “ghost plates” to evade speed cameras.
The Vehicle Registration Offences Review Bill proposes increasing penalties for those caught with these illegal number plates from the current £100 fine to £1,000, plus penalty points on their licence.
Ghost plates, also known as stealth plates, appear normal to the human eye but contain reflective coatings that make them unreadable to Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras.
The West Bromwich MP presented her bill to the House of Commons last week highlighting how these plates allow dangerous drivers to speed with impunity.
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Ghost plates are used by drivers to avoid ANPR speed cameras
PA
The proposed legislation would represent a 900 per cent increase in fines for offenders who use these plates to avoid detection on Britain’s roads.
These ghost plates can be purchased online for as little as £30, making vehicles effectively invisible to police speed cameras.
Coombes told Parliament: “If you Google ghost plates, you’ll be presented with where you can buy a ghost plate online for as little as £30, making the vehicle invisible to automatic number plate recognition cameras that police use to stop speeding and keep our roads safe.
“The fact is these plates are being used on our roads by people who want to speed around freely, run red lights and much, much worse.
“If you’ve got a ghost plate and you speed past a camera at 100 miles an hour, the likelihood is you won’t be caught.”
Currently, drivers caught with ghost plates face a fine of just £100 with no penalty points with Coombes warning that the current fine “is hardly a deterrent.”
She argued that a £1,000 fine plus six penalty points would be more appropriate, potentially even including vehicle seizure or licence disqualification.
The scale of the problem is significant with one study finding that as many as one in 15 drivers may already be using anti-ANPR technology. In some sectors, the figures are even more alarming.
“One police exercise conducted in London examined more than 1,000 taxi and private hire vehicles and found 40 per cent of those vehicles had ghost plates,” Coombes revealed.
Wolverhampton Council is among local authorities working with police to use new camera technology to catch offenders.
Tony Porter, the UK’s former surveillance camera commissioner, has backed stronger action against those doctoring their plates.
In her speech to Parliament, Coombes highlighted the serious safety concerns posed by ghost plates.
“Since I became MP for West Bromwich family after family have come to me, having lost a husband or a mother or a son through other people’s dangerous driving,” she said.
She pointed to alarming statistics about road safety in her region. “In the West Midlands, 1,000 people are killed or seriously injured on our roads each year. Across the UK, that is 30,000 people.”
Coombes condemned drivers using ghost plates as “selfish people who use our roads as race tracks, who care nothing about risking other people’s lives”.
The RAC recently found that almost half of UK police forces have caught motorists driving more than 90mph in 30mph zones.
“It cannot be right that these drivers are not facing the consequences of their actions and are creating so much danger for everyone else,” she added.
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Drivers found with ‘ghost’ number plates currently can face a £100 fine
PA
A Government spokesperson said: “This Government takes road safety seriously. We are committed to reducing the number of those killed and injured on our roads.”
They added that ministers have begun work on a new road safety strategy, the first in over a decade, with more details to be shared “in due course”.
