Thieves are using made-to-measure number plates, and no records are kept of the buyers, reports Daniel Attwood
Car thieves are fitting false number plates to stolen cars to allow them to move around undetected.
Despite calls from the Garda Stolen Vehicle Unit for legislation to make garages and motor factor shops keep a record of people who purchase number plates, there are no moves to introduce such a law.
This means criminals can walk into a garage and walk out with a set of false plates for a stolen car, secure in the knowledge that even if the gardaí can trace where the plates were purchased, they will not be able to ascertain who bought them.
"We have suggested that the sale of number plates be regulated," explained Detective Sergeant Finbar Garland of the Garda Stolen Vehicle Unit. "However, we have never had a response to our requests."
Now, he says, the situation is becoming critical. "The majority of stolen cars - 99 per cent - that we recover now have false plates fitted."
The process is straightforward: car thieves look for a car that is the same model and colour as the one they intend to steal, make a note of its registration number and then have false plates made, without having to prove whether they own the car or provide any form of identification.
This is often done before they steal a car, so that they can switch the plates immediately. "This makes it very difficult for us to spot a stolen vehicle," says Garland. "Thieves are even fitting the cars with forged tax and insurance discs."
In Britain the law demands that any business making number plates must keep a record of anyone who buys replacement plates. However, there is no such law here, and no plans to introduce one, despite the obvious advantages.
Both the Department of the Environment and the Revenue Commissioners, who between them are responsible for vehicle licensing and registration, have confirmed that they are not considering any move to introduce legislation in this area.
The recent introduction of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in Garda cars should make the identification of stolen cars easier. However, false plates make detection from these ANPR cameras almost impossible.
"There are ways and means for us to tell if a car has false plates fitted," says Garland. But this cannot be achieved from ANPR cameras alone, and instead involves physically inspecting a car and checking that its tax and insurance details as well as its vehicle identification number (Vin) match the car's assigned registration number, which is stored on the national vehicle database.
The only way this can be achieved is by stopping a vehicle and to do that the gardaí must already have a suspicion that the car is stolen or is being used to commit a crime.
A small number of companies that make vehicle registration plates have started to keep a voluntary record of who purchases replacement plates. "Regulation has to be introduced in this area. People should at least have to present photo ID to have plates made," says Garland. While it remains easy to have false plates made, few criminals are resorting to stealing number plates from cars to replace those of a stolen vehicle.
However, this does happen, and therefore motorists who notice that one or both of their number plates are missing from their vehicle, even if they think they may have just fallen off, are advised to report this to the gardaí.
"People need to tell us immediately. We need to know if a car has had its number plates stolen, or even if they have fallen off," says Garland. "This information will then be put into the ANPR system."
... Once a registration number is entered into the ANPR system, if a car with that registration passes a Garda vehicle fitted with the camera system, it will be immediately identified to officers.
To help tackle the problem of thieves stealing number plates and then using them on stolen cars, a new type of registration plate has been introduced in Britain. The new tamper-proof plates shatter if an attempt is made to remove them from the vehicle.
In addition, moves are afoot in the UK to have every motorcycle fitted with a microchip embedded into its number plate to help stem the number of motorcycle thefts.
But with more British car owners discovering that their car has been cloned - 40,000 last year, according to the police - when they start to receive speeding and congestion charge penalties from cities they have never driven in, they, too, are considering theft-proof plates.