U.K. uses license plate scanners to crack down on illegal drivers

U.K. streets are about to get a bit less welcoming for anyone driving illegally as soon as a planned fleet of vans packing license plate scanners hit the roads. The vans, operated by the NCP car-parking group, will be on the hunt for vehicles belonging to owners who haven't paid their car taxes, and will follow a zero-tolerance policy, clamping and impounding cars on sight, and crushing them if the driver doesn't cough up the £80 release fee within seven days. Ouch, couldn't they just sell 'em? At least then the owner can buy back his or her car for thousands of pounds more than the release fee, but for thousands of pounds less than what a new vehicle would set them back. Deets on the specific system being used don't seem to have been made available, but it sounds similar to the so-bad-it's-good-named Mobile Plate Hunter 900 put to use last year in California to catch stolen cars.

[hitkaiser @ Jun 21st 2006 11:28PM]

"Deets on the specific system being used don't seem to have been made available"

Deets indeed... dates?

[Spike @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:06AM]

This is no worse than the Speed Scamera partnership that all the brits have to deal with.

[Neal Saferstein @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:39AM]

I am shocked we haven't seen these in mass here in the United States.

Neal Saferstein

[WAR @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:40AM]

@Comment 1

I believe "deets" is the hip way to say details. Though I am not hip; I only inferred this though an exposer to hip lingo on television.

[youngteam @ Jun 22nd 2006 2:23AM]

The "deets", or at least a background of the technology, can be found at http://www.cctv-information.co.uk/constant3/anpr.html

We've had the Vans across the UK for at least a year.

[madhouse @ Jun 22nd 2006 3:06AM]

Like i say LCD number plates are the way to go.

[Chris Sansbury @ Jun 22nd 2006 3:30AM]

What a GREAT idea! Fining and impounding the cars of your potential customers.

Stunning stupidity from NCP.

[Hans Gruber @ Jun 22nd 2006 3:55AM]

"What a GREAT idea! Fining and impounding the cars of your potential customers."

I dunno, we'd have to park in a NCP cap park for at least say... 2 hours for them to make £80 out of us.

[Automotive Engineer @ Jun 22nd 2006 4:33AM]

'What a GREAT idea! Fining and impounding the cars of your potential customers.'

Er, these people don't pay the tax, they most likely don't have insurance either (one of the main motives for catching them) so you can bet your bottom dollar they are not going to pay for parking.

[Ryan Waddell @ Jun 22nd 2006 4:36AM]

Sweet jesus, let's hope you don't go on vacation for 2 weeks after forgetting to pay your car tax!

"Mr Johnson, you have 7 days to pick up your car" "Mr Johnson, you have 3 days to pick up your car" "Mr Johnson, your car will be crushed in 1 day if you do not pick it up" "Mr Johnson, you have 7 days to pick up your cube"

[heh @ Jun 22nd 2006 4:45AM]

This is just going to increase the use of cloning other peoples number plates.

[MacroEQ @ Jun 22nd 2006 4:57AM]

With the vast amount of cameras throughout the UK, they will be modified to take pictures of the driver to reduce disputes in court, scan license plates for tax disc evasion (as mentioned in article above) and also cross reference with a database for stolen vehicles.

Imagine, a car is stolen, a normal everyday roadside camera reads and identifies the plate, the computer alerts the police and gives them a GPS coordinate of it's location. Stolen cars and police chases will become rare and few & far between.

[Semi @ Jun 22nd 2006 5:28AM]

the UK government doesnt care about illegal immigrants, murderers, rapists, all it cares about it gettin the dosh off motorists!

[TheWakeUpCall @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:16AM]

This is nothing. In my city in the UK they take pictures of all cars going in and out of the city at every entrance, so they know who is going in and out. With the new UK passport, that tracks exactly where you are in the world, and the proposition of ID cards, the UK is getting more and more like a Big Brother state.

[Jay Adair @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:19AM]

Odd that NCP have negotiated this, seeing as the National ANPR (automatic numberplate recognition) system goes live soon, which will use the existing CCTV network to automatically detect illegal vehicles and dispatch interception teams to them.

More money for NCP though, so of course it's understandable, and welcome, I can't stand these illegal drivers, they have no tax, insurance, mot and thus their vehicles are a piece of crap, dangerous machines that are often involved in crime. Get them off the roads!

I agree with them being crushed as well, as often the vehicles are crappy old things and shouldn't be on the roads anyhow from a saftey perspective.

[Dan @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:06AM]

They know what tube and bus stations I use and what time I go through them. They know when and where and at what time I drive in and out of London. with the new passports they'll have my biometrics on record. They know when I walk down most of the major streets in London and they know when I'm driving to fast. But do I feel safe from gangs of knife wielding youths er No. I may be mugged maybe even stabbed on my walk home in broad daylight but all this surveilence won't make it safe for me and many like me, but it'll fine me when I don't pay a bill on time, tax payers money well spent I say. Even if I am found bleeding on the pavement and get to a hospital I'm likely to get MRSA from an unclean under staffed hospital that will be in the midst of reducing staff numbers further.

[Chris @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:31AM]

So maybe the picture that you're using is just stock photography, but if its from the system its kind of odd that they're tracking vehicles in Mph...doesn't the UK go by Kmph? The time format (based on 24 hour clock) and the date format (DD-MM-YY) are decidedly un-Amercian...so why the Mph?

[Eion @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:53AM]

In the UK, distance is measured in miles, not kilometres.

They have a similar system in northern Virginia to catch people haven't paid vehicle property tax, but they sell the cars rather than crush them (and they take your licence plates rather than clamping).

[Randy @ Jun 22nd 2006 10:21AM]

I am sure that everyone in the "1984" universe agreed that the cameras were for a good reason... until they were told they were a good reason and believed it.

[Tom @ Jun 24th 2006 7:47AM]

I'm so sick of all this crap about catching "real criminals". If you don't pay your taxes, you are a real criminal. It's like people who complain about speed cameras; there's an easy way not to get caught out: DON'T BREAK THE LAW. I'll admit that even I speed, but because I feel pressured to by other drivers who insist on getting right up my arse. I'm sure there are plenty others out there who only speed for precisely the same reason. If everyone just slowed down a little there would be no problem. Why is everyone in such a hurry anyway?

"Sweet jesus, let's hope you don't go on vacation for 2 weeks after forgetting to pay your car tax!"
Then don't forget.

[Ross @ Jun 26th 2006 7:21PM]

Seems more than a little strange that NCP are involved in this.... I seem to remember legislation such as, say, the Data Protection Act in this country that prevents personal data being disclosed. Surely the only people who should be able to see whether or not I have paid for road tax are the DVLA...

I've never been an NCP customer (well, maybe once) so why should they store any information about me... Maybe using the cameras at the entrances/exits to their car parks for this purpose would be reasonably acceptable, but no-one other than the police or dvla should have ANPR equipped vehicles out there monitoring other road users.

This is all we need - another commercial vigilante - what's it got to do with NCP!?!