Project Description
The webinar “Unmasking Invisible Law Breakers on UK Roads” examined the growing problem of illegal “ghost” number plates, how they undermined enforcement and public safety, and what policy, enforcement, and industry responses were needed.
What ghost plates are and why they matter
Presenter James Luckhurst (Project EDWARD) opened by explaining that ghost plates were number plates designed to evade automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) by using reflective or infrared‑blocking materials, altered characters, or physical obstructions so they appeared normal to the human eye but disappeared or became unreadable to cameras.
The All‑Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Transport Safety had just published a report warning that ghost and other illegal plates then posed serious road safety and national security risks, and that the UK’s number plate system needed fundamental reform.
MP Sarah Coombes described how street racing in her West Bromwich constituency exposed her to the issue when police said cameras were pointless because racers used ghost plates. Her work with the APPG found widespread problems in the sale and regulation of plates, including ghost plates, cloned plates and weak oversight of suppliers, which allowed criminals and dangerous drivers to operate undetected.
Regulatory failures and enforcement gaps
Coombes highlighted that anyone could become a registered plate supplier by paying a one‑off £40 fee to DVLA with minimal information and no background checks, and that people with serious criminal convictions had set up as plate sellers and then ignored the law. DVLA had only checked a small fraction of the 34,000 registered companies in recent years, finding high levels of non‑compliance, which she argued showed a “broken” system. She called for higher and recurring fees, proper vetting, more frequent checks, tougher penalties for using ghost plates (including points as well as higher fines), and inclusion of these changes in the forthcoming national road safety strategy.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster reported that a six‑week trial with Redspeed cameras at one Birmingham site had detected 8,403 ghost‑plate reads on 1,884 vehicles, underlining the scale of the problem. He and Coombes were calling for a ban on 3D and 4D plates, an increase in the standard fine from £100 to £1,000 plus six penalty points, tighter supplier regulation, and a single secure marketplace for registered keepers to buy plates.
Intelligence, technology and industry’s role
Spencer Marsh (National Trading Standards) explained that many frontline officers and trading standards teams were initially unaware of ghost plates, meaning very little intelligence was recorded. His fieldwork across the country, including at a major airport, showed high usage among taxi drivers and others avoiding charges, with inconsistent enforcement and little follow‑through to identify suppliers. He stressed the national security implications if organised crime and terrorism suspects used ghost plates, and called for better intelligence sharing, education and DVLA engagement.
Steve Callaghan of Road Safety Support contributed an engineering and legal perspective, drawing on decades of work in traffic enforcement and camera type‑approval. He described how early trials with specialist cameras in forces such as West Yorkshire and in parts of the North West demonstrated that ghost plates could be reliably detected, but also revealed that enforcement was manpower‑intensive and that the current £100 registration‑plate offence was an inadequate deterrent. He argued that deliberate ghost‑plate use should be treated more as forgery or fraud, potentially prosecuted in higher courts, and that strategically placed automatic detection systems were needed to quantify the scale of the problem and support stronger legal responses.
Tom Duckham of Redspeed International described technical defeat methods (IR‑blocking coatings, IR‑absorbent characters, spacing tricks and obstructions) and outlined countermeasures such as multi‑frequency illumination, dual imaging and advanced computer vision to flag ghost plates automatically. He advocated expanding controlled pilots such as Operation Phantom with West Midlands across more forces and streamlining approval processes so technology could be deployed more quickly.
Systemic reform and next steps
Industry representative Rob Laugharne (British Number Plate Manufacturers Association) said abuse had “exploded” and estimated that up to one in 15 vehicles might have been unreadable for enforcement, often due to deliberate evasion. He argued that in the UK’s decentralised model there was little cradle‑to‑grave traceability of plate components, and proposed dedicated, marked materials (for example with QR codes and overt/covert security features), external certification of plate standards, and effectively scrapping and rebuilding the Register of Number Plate Suppliers with stricter entry and regular audits.
Journalist Laura Laker, who drafted the APPG report, described the system as a “Wild West” with tens of thousands of producers, widespread non‑compliance and easy online purchase of “show plates” that could be used illegally. She supported a national task force on plate compliance, a major reduction in suppliers, tighter control of materials, stronger MOT and fleet checks, public education on buying legal plates, and proactive long‑term planning as road charging and ANPR‑based policies expanded.
The session closed with consensus that technology, regulation, enforcement and public awareness all needed to move in step: tougher penalties, fewer and better‑regulated suppliers, better use of detection technology, clear national procedures for enforcement, and a coordinated communications campaign, including a proposed three‑minute public awareness video led by Project EDWARD.
This webinar was delivered in partnership with Redspeed and the British Number Plate Manufacturers’ Association.
