West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Simon Foster, has welcomed today’s hard-hitting national report calling for sweeping reforms to stamp out illegal ‘ghost plates’.
The report’s key recommendations align precisely with what PCC Simon Foster has campaigned for – and they mark the beginning of real and long-overdue change across the country.
‘Ghost plates’ – often marketed as 3D or 4D raised-character number plates – are a serious threat to public safety, hinder law enforcement and provide a loophole exploited by criminals.
The report, published by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Transport Safety, urges Government to:
- Standardise all number plates with built-in security features and ban 3D/4D plates that evade detection
- Tighten control of plate suppliers through annual licensing fees, rigorous audits and removal of non-compliant sellers
- Toughen enforcement by increasing fines, adding license points for offenders and seizing vehicles of repeat violators
PCC Simon Foster, who hosted a Parliamentary briefing on ghost plates with MPs in Westminster last week, said: “This is a breakthrough that I have been campaigning for. Ghost plates enable dangerous drivers and criminals to avoid detection and remain invisible.
“These recommendations are common-sense, long overdue and vital for public safety and law enforcement. Government must act now – and must act fast.”
The Commissioner has repeatedly exposed the scale of the problem, including through pioneering technology in Birmingham that identified thousands of illegal plates invisible to standard Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems.
West Midlands Police concluded that if you stood at the side of a Birmingham road, a vehicle displaying a ghost plate would pass every nine minutes.
The PCC added: “The message is clear: the use of illegal plates will not be tolerated and anyone who does, will soon be facing tougher sanctions.
“These reforms will finally give police the powers and tools they need, to crack down in illegal plates.”
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