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DRIVERS are being urged to use a gadget costing just £2.50 which can fight off an often-forgotten type of theft – and it could save your being wrongly fined.
On the face of it, number plates may appear to be pretty worthless as a set of new plates can be bought for less than £20.
Criminals though can benefit from cloning or taking plates as they look to get away with committing motoring offences as well as other crimes.
The DVLA and police usually use CCTV or Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology to identify vehicles.
By using stolen plates on a vehicle it means any speeding fines or parking tickets are sent to the door of an innocent person rather than the perpetrator.
Number plate thefts are a growing problem with more than 50,000 number plate thefts every year in the UK with 1,000 people contacting the DVLA to report their vehicle has been wrongly linked to incidents.
It is believed that over a million ANPR ‘reads’ a day are inaccurate and figures released by the DVLA show that 32,500 motorists have lodged complaints about suspected number plate cloning in the past four years alone.
In London, the number of ULEZ charges overturned due to cloning more than quadrupled to almost 13,000 after the zone’s first expansion in 2021.
Under UK law, it is illegal to drive with cloned plates and culprits could be charged with fraud, with punishments ranging from a community order and a fine of up to £1,000 to a prison sentence.
Cops in Folkestone, Kent, have taken action following a series of incidents in the region and are offering free tamper-proof secrets that secure plates.
Community Safety Unit Inspector for Folkestone and Hythe, James Wyles, said: “Stolen number plates are often used by criminals hoping that they will help shield them from swift identification when carrying out further offences.
“As part of our strategy to tackle this type of crime, we’re encouraging motorists to take up the offer of the free kits - which I am pleased we are able to provide thanks to Safer Streets 5 funding.
“Using the tamper-proof screws can help to ensure the security of vehicle plates, as can preventative measures such as parking vehicles in a garage or well-lit secure area whenever possible.”
Anyone unable to get their hands on a free anti-tamper kit can buy .
Anti-tamper tools are “virtually non-removable without the specialist locking tool,” according to Halfords.
said: “One simple way to protect your car number plates against unauthorised removal, is to replace the existing screws holding the plates in position, with one-way security screws.
“These screws are a straight replacement for the existing conventional number plate screws, and can be inserted using a normal flat blade screwdriver, so you won't need to invest in special tools.
“The security screw is cleverly designed with a drive face only, so it's simple to do up, but if you try to undo it, the screwdriver simply slips off the screw head."
