[olduser]

Found on the BBC News;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgj5w7wpg95o

Are number plates now past their use by date?

[Nick]

I suspect they'l be around for a good while yet - presumably at some point being replaced by something more advanced by technology that we don't know about yet! I'm not sure there's anyway of fulfilling the purpose of number plates yet in a way that prevents things like cloning happening - after all it's been happening for a significant time and i don't believe there's been a way identified to stop it as yet.

I also didn't realise that you could buy number plates on Amazon! Presumably you didn't have to provide proof of ownership there?!?!

[TC1474]

This has been going on for years. I was arresting people in the 70's for using false plates and it is unlikely to get any better anytime soon.

Much of the problem is caused by the likes of Amazon and other producers of what they call "Show plates" who require no proof of legitimacy and take purchases on a whim rather than due diligence as bona fide retailers will do.

But in the grand scheme of things, using hurty worty words on the internet id considered a more serious crime than vehicle cloning these days 🙄

[Drivingforfun]

In fairness I don't see how they can make selling a number plate harder, as it's not illegal to own it - i.e. in your kitchen drawer, nor does it legally belong to anyone - I think the "owner" is actually just the person who has the right to choose which vehicle it goes on, but I'm sure someone will correct me if needed

There's lots of things you can buy without the authority to put to its regular use - police uniform/warrant card, military medals, dummy banknotes etc... all sold with a supposedly genuine reason but I'm sure often not used for that reason

My dad just before he left the police about 10 yrs ago said herb grinders were the big thing at that point, supposedly lots of people wanted to grind industrial amounts of herbs for cooking 😂

[Santa]

Since most cars have the same number for life, it would seem reasonable to me for it to be indelibly etched onto the car's bodywork.

Maybe the existing system could continue, but every car could have a machine-readable identifier (like the VIN) that would be linked to whatever number plate was issued.

[NMNeil]

@Santa Problem is one of the first questions we would ask when responding to many crimes was "Did you get the license plate number?"
So the plate would stay but as the VIN number is already stored in the PCM and most cars are now connected to the internet it would be fairly easy to link the VIN reader and number plate recognition cameras together which would alert to any discrepancy between the two.

[Santa]

I thought about this a little more and I think that maybe new cars should be fitted with something like an RFID transmitter that could be triggered by a police car with ANPR to check the match.

The transmitter(s) would have to be located in multiple places and be hard for criminals to find and disable.