Anti-theft number plates

Stolen number plates are used in a range of vehicle crimes, including the sale of stolen cars, avoidance of congestion, toll or parking charges and speeding.

Theft of number plates is a growing problem according to police forces, which estimate that around 40,000 plates were stolen from vehicles in 2005, an annual
rise of almost 25%. Criminal can remove plates from one car and fix them to another stolen car of the same model before it’s sold on and people committing speeding crimes, ignoring road charges or stealing petrol can use stolen plates to avoid detection.

To combat this problem, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) asked number plate manufacturers to design new plates with anti-theft measures built in. The agency set rigorous standards for these new designs – plates will only be certified
as anti-theft products if they cannot be removed from a vehicle within three minutes or if removal renders them unusable.

The first company to create a DVLA-approved anti-theft plate was Hills Numberplates, which launched its SecurePlate product in 2006. ‘The DVLA asked companies to design something to prevent car cloning, which is seen as a growing crime problem. 'We designed SecurePlate so that it breaks into a minimum of four pieces if it is removed from the car,’ explains Hills Numberplates Marketing Manager Louise Sambrook.

SecurePlate has received accreditation from Secured by Design (SBD), a national initiative from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). More than 200 dealers sell SecurePlate across the country and it is still the only DVLA-certified anti-theft plate on the market, although in 2007 the agency also accredited a plate from a company
called The Silwood Group which is yet to launch.

However, anti-theft plates are still an optional upgrade for motorists and new cars are not required to have them fitted as standard. And while ACPO’s Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service has called for all cars to have tamper-proof plates, a spokeswoman for the DVLA says the effectiveness of the plates needs to be proven: 'We aim to demonstrate in practice that the standard is both achievable and effective before we consider making it compulsory. We are also prepared to modify the standard in the light of experience and a voluntary standard gives us greater flexibility to do this.’