Dodgy registration

DB1904

Mutton_Geoff said:

I reported suspicious behaviour to the police (two people in a car scoping out the tools & materials on my building site). I gave the police registration number but they told me I must have copied it down incorrectly as it didn't exist. I had accurately recorded it, checked on an insurance comparison website and the make/model showed correctly.

I called the police back when they told me this was a common occurrence. The car had been scrapped, the number removed from the police database but later cloned by the perps. They added it back to the ANPR system so it would be picked up at some point later.

The system isn't as clever as I thought and it's very easy then to drive around with invalid plates as these folk were. The problem seems to be those that like to pay scant regard to the law know the loopholes they can exploit. In the "old days" spot checks for a dodgy headlight/brake light etc, often resulted in other criminal activity being uncovered but nowadays there are very few police actually monitoring day to day stuff.

The basis of said system does go back to 1974. 

NBLondon

Herzlos said:

It's comparing it to the main database and will flag up if there are no matches. It's completely trivial in a well specified system (not something I accuse the Government of, admittedly). Something like this:

status = do_anpr_lookup(plate);
if(status == invalid) {
flag();
}

I'd be stunned if a police car's ANPR system saw a plate that didn't exist and just pretended there was no car there. It should be smart enough to identify that it's on a car and not some random text on a wall.

That was my assumption -  a fixed ANPR camera would have a link to DVLA and a non-existent or invalid plate flags it.  I'd accept that a mobile camera can only check against the latest uploaded database of "plates to look for" but that has to be updated regularly to be useful.

But what DB seems to be telling us is that the uploaded database isn't comprehensive - maybe only for that force?  So a marker set in one area won't trigger a flag out of that area.

So the easiest way to fake a plate is walk past a scrapyard; choose a number that's around the right age for the vehicle you are disguising and get a plate made up.  It won't be picked up on ANPR as a scrapped vehicle; if you get a penalty then there won't be a genuine RK to be alerted when they get the ticket.  As long as you don't attract the attention of actual living police then you can drive uninsured and un-MoT'd  for months/years.

Car_54

NBLondon said:

Herzlos said:

It's comparing it to the main database and will flag up if there are no matches. It's completely trivial in a well specified system (not something I accuse the Government of, admittedly). Something like this:

status = do_anpr_lookup(plate);
if(status == invalid) {
flag();
}

I'd be stunned if a police car's ANPR system saw a plate that didn't exist and just pretended there was no car there. It should be smart enough to identify that it's on a car and not some random text on a wall.

That was my assumption -  a fixed ANPR camera would have a link to DVLA and a non-existent or invalid plate flags it.  I'd accept that a mobile camera can only check against the latest uploaded database of "plates to look for" but that has to be updated regularly to be useful.

Subject to mobile phone coverage restrictions, there is no good reason why a mobile camera could not have the same links as a fixed one.

Marvel1

Carfanatic28249 said:

Surely somethings wrong here since they are being allowed to do it for so long. 

This is why.

Carfanatic28249 said:

Yeah I’m not one to go out of my way to report

easy

If it's got plates copied from a similar model & colour of car that won't trip an ANPR problem either.  
So,  if the car you know is , for example,  a green Corsa SRI,  and the driver copies plates from another green Corsa SRI, it won't show anything up if a police officer does a simple ANPR check.  

But if you report to the police that sometimes the car has one set of plates on it,  and sometimes a different set of plates,  they should be able to ask the owner/driver of the car to show them the VIN number,  so they can see if the VIN matches against that registration number,  then they would get somewhere. 
In the OPs position I would be reporting it.   Give the address where the vehicle is usually parked,  state that the Registration plates tend to change,  and you believe that it may be used for illegal purposes. 

DB1904

NBLondon said:

Herzlos said:

It's comparing it to the main database and will flag up if there are no matches. It's completely trivial in a well specified system (not something I accuse the Government of, admittedly). Something like this:

status = do_anpr_lookup(plate);
if(status == invalid) {
flag();
}

I'd be stunned if a police car's ANPR system saw a plate that didn't exist and just pretended there was no car there. It should be smart enough to identify that it's on a car and not some random text on a wall.

That was my assumption -  a fixed ANPR camera would have a link to DVLA and a non-existent or invalid plate flags it.  I'd accept that a mobile camera can only check against the latest uploaded database of "plates to look for" but that has to be updated regularly to be useful.

But what DB seems to be telling us is that the uploaded database isn't comprehensive - maybe only for that force?  So a marker set in one area won't trigger a flag out of that area.

So the easiest way to fake a plate is walk past a scrapyard; choose a number that's around the right age for the vehicle you are disguising and get a plate made up.  It won't be picked up on ANPR as a scrapped vehicle; if you get a penalty then there won't be a genuine RK to be alerted when they get the ticket.  As long as you don't attract the attention of actual living police then you can drive uninsured and un-MoT'd  for months/years.

If the marker is against the PNC it's national. The insurance database although through the PNC is another database which must be turned on in addition to the PNC, same with tax. There are too many variables, misreads and non UK plates to account for a hit on a non plate.