- Published
Thousands of illegal registration plates on cars and other vehicles have been detected by a new camera system currently being tested on motorways in south-east England, BBC Panorama can reveal.
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Panorama → publish → England
These plates have been adapted to avoid their details being identified by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems, which are used to enforce speed limits and low emission zones, as well as track criminals.
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which → adapt → criminals
Illegal plates are putting the public at risk and are far too easy to get hold of, according to one former government advisor.
We have spoken to families who say their lives have been devastated by road deaths where illegal plates were involved.
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plates → put → deaths
Filming undercover, we also discovered how easy and cheap it is to buy plates without any background checks.
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it → film → checks
The minister responsible for vehicle registration across the UK has told us a national plan has now been instigated to understand how widespread the problem of illegal number plates is, and what can be done about it.
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what → tell → it
The UK has one of the largest networks of ANPR cameras in the world, with 14,000 sites capturing 100 million number plates each day.
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sites → have → plates
Many experts believe this system is failing to keep up with tactics used by some drivers determined to avoid recognition.
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system → believe → recognition
Ghost Plates: Drivers Cheating the Law
How cloned and ghost number plates are leaving innocent motorists facing fines, debt collection threats and years of stress.
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plates → cheat → stress
These tactics include deliberately using false plates that clone the number of another vehicle - and so-called "ghost plates", where special plastic is used to make all or part of the registration number unreadable by most motorway cameras.
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all → include → cameras
One of the main providers of ANPR technology, MAV Systems, has been testing a new camera capable of identifying and reading ghost plates.
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One → test → plates
At one test site, just outside London near the Dartford Crossing, it has recorded an average of more than 1,000 of the ghost plates a day over several months.
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it → record → months
Two other sites have been running for almost two years.
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sites → run → years
At one, near the M25, detections have risen from 1,000 a day to nearly 2,000 a day - while at the other, near the Eurotunnel at Folkestone, the system is flagging more than 400 a day.
'It has broken us all'
Sharon Gannon's son, Jason Wallis, died in a crash where hidden registration plates were involved.
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plates → rise → crash
She believes being invisible to ANPR cameras emboldens drivers to take deadly risks.
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being → believe → risks
Wallis was killed in Buckinghamshire in 2023.
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Wallis → kill → 2023
He and his brother-in-law, Lewis Baker, had been riding their motorbikes at high speed when they both crashed into a car.
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they → rid → car
The car driver was not hurt.
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driver → hurt → ?
Baker survived and was later jailed for 15 months for dangerous driving.
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Baker → survive → driving
In court, he admitted using a device to hide his number plate from public view.
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he → admit → view
He also said he and Wallis had ridden at high speed more than 100 times.
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he → say → speed
"It has broken us all," Sharon Gannon says of the effect the crash has had on her family.
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crash → break → family
In another case, from 2025, 81-year-old Graham Slinn was killed on a pedestrian crossing when a car with cloned plates hit him at high speed.
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car → kill → speed
The 20-year-old driver, Cain Byrne, who was driving without a licence or insurance, had also inhaled nitrous oxide minutes before the collision.
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who → drive → collision
He was identified after police trawled through hours of CCTV footage.
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police → identify → footage
One camera even caught the moment he had put the illegal plates on his car.
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he → catch → car
Byrne was jailed for 11 years and six months for causing death by dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.
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Byrne → jail → insurance
The victim's daughter, Nicola Timmis, says cloned plates are like a "gateway drug" which allow drivers to take more dangerous risks.
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drivers → say → risks
"It seems like it's harmless, but then one thing leads to another, leads to another, and before you know it, it's somebody dead," she tells Panorama.
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she → seem → Panorama
Ghost plates
Both cloned and ghost plates look like normal vehicle registration plates when viewed by the naked eye.
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plates → clone → eye
In the case of cloned ones, at least two vehicles are on the road with the same letters and numbers - with only one of them being legal.
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one → clone → them
Ghost plates, on the other hand, show correct details for the vehicle - but they are made up of reflective materials which are difficult or impossible for most ANPR cameras to read.
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cameras → show → materials
Cloned and ghost plates undermine the police's ability to track organised criminals, says Tony Porter, a former senior counter-terrorism officer who has advised the government on surveillance cameras.
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who → clone → cameras
"The police need an effective ANPR system that doesn't have weaknesses [and] doesn't put the public at risk," he says.
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he → need → risk
While passports have security features such as watermarks and electronic ID chips, Porter says, "we tolerate a £10 number plate with no security mechanism on it".
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we → have → it
Anyone can currently become a registered number-plate supplier by filling in a quick form and paying a one-off fee.
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Anyone → become → fee
Panorama secretly filmed at a market in Essex to find out how easy it is to buy a plate in breach of the rules.
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it → film → rules
Two out of three businesses we approached there offered ghost plates which they said could help avoid cameras policing London's Ultra-Low Emission Zone (Ulez) cameras.
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they → approach → cameras
One of them allowed us to buy a plate without asking for either ID or proof that we were allowed to use the registration - both of which are required by law.
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both → allow → law
Instead, we handed over £40 in cash and, eight minutes later, we had a brand new number plate.
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we → hand → plate
Buying a ghost plate is not illegal in itself, but it would be against the law to put it on a vehicle and drive with it.
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it → buy → it
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
