July 2008

Sloppy policing of number plates allows drivers to escape justice

The Police are permitting thousands of drivers to get away with crimes on Britain’s roads every day – because they can’t be bothered to enforce simple number plate laws.

Road safety website BetterDrivingPlease.com has just received the 2,000th “illegal” plate reported to the site.

It was set up in 2006 by road safety campaigner Andrew McGavin, and in total has attracted just under 15,000 reports of bad driving around the UK.

Andrew said the lack of policing for plates is a deeply frustrating situation.

He said: “The laws regarding spacing and fonts on number plates are very clear, yet there are thousands of people driving around with plates where they have made alterations to create a new word, or have adjusted the font.

“Some people may not consider they are doing any harm. But altered plates threaten the integrity of automatic plate recognition cameras which are there to detect more serious crime.”

He added: “If drivers feel they can get away with altering their plates, they are more likely to commit other road crimes. This needs to be addressed by the Police now.”

The law states that letters and numbers on plates must not be altered, rearranged or misrepresented. This includes moving spacing around the plate.

Potential punishments include a fine of up to £1,000, the registration mark being withdrawn and the vehicle failing the MOT test.

More than 1.5 million people have visited BetterDrivingPlease.com to report or search through the 15,000 reports since the site was set up two years ago.

Anyone who spots bad driving can report the number plate of the offending vehicle, what happened and where. Details of all incidents reported are available for anyone to see.

Andrew covers the costs of running the website and the BetterDrivingPlease.com campaign himself, helped by a team of unpaid volunteers.

ENDS

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

• For any further information, quotes or interviews, a BetterDrivingPlease.com spokesman is available. Please email press@publicityheaven.com or call Paul Green on 08452 303049
• To find specific reports of bad driving, go to www.BetterDrivingPlease.com and enter the area in the Keyword search box
• You are welcome to publish any information you find on the website
• A factfile, logo, screenshots and other press resources are available online at http://www.betterdrivingplease.com/press.asp