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UNINSURED DRIVING IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM, BUT AUTOMATIC NUMBER PLATE RECOGNITION (ANPR) WILL NOT STOP IT
ANPR the system that uses a video camera looking at vehicles to 'capture' number plates, that registration mark is then compared electronically with various databases of vehicles that the Police may be interested in.
Government claims that ANPR can be effective against uninsured drivers are wrong, and for very simple reasons:
* It's not the VEHICLE that needs insurance under the law, it's the DRIVER.
* About 3 million motor vehicles are 'in the trade' at any one time. Most of them will be properly insured, but none of them will be listed as insured in the databases.
* At least 1.5 million vehicles are in large fleets and are not insured based on vehicle registration mark. They aren't in the databases either.
* It's far from unusual to have a vehicle that is registered as insured being driven by a driver who has no insurance to drive in force. So ANPR thinks the insurance is OK, but in fact there is none.
* Even with a massive police effort it is virtually inconceivable that they will reach 250,000 prosecutions in a year. With two million uninsured drivers that means that the average uninsured driver should expect to get caught only once in every EIGHT year!
* Stealing or cloning vehicle registration marks will defeat ANPR. Widespread use of ANPR will make this practice commonplace threatening to undermine the entire registration process. Reports suggest that 10% of vehicles are already lost to the system.
* The DVLA records of vehicle ownership are known to be at least 32% inaccurate.
* Police have already reported so many false positives with ANPR, that they simply turn the equipment off.
(reported in Auto Express)
* Vehicle seizures will only encourage the use of 'disposable' vehicles. The Police crush a £100 banger, the uninsured driver simply buys another and is back on the road.
MAG took part in the consultaion on this which we published on the website on 11th January this year: www.mag-uk.org Riders Writes Section.
This response from MAGs Research Officer Elaine Hardy: Whether you SORN or insure your vehicle has nothing to do with professional criminals.
I asked the officials at the DVLA conference how many 'hard' criminals they'd caught - they don't know - though I suspect - not many.
This whole process is to increase revenue for the treasury and to show the populist press that the government is 'doing something' through their knee jerk management of law and order.
The only 'offenders' to pay are those that can least afford it.
Petty criminals nick or clone cars to carry out burglaries or robberies and I would be very surprised if organised criminals worry too much about SORN or uninsured vehicles - why should they?
All they have to do is set up a company and get vehicles on finance - they can do what they want.
An example - a 'gentleman' changed the address of legitimate companies - got 40 cars on finance - delivered to a football field and then moved them on to his organised criminal mates.
This whole issue is a terrible injustice and in consideration of the oligopolistic practices of the motor insurance industry, insurers now have free rein to increase the price of motor insurance premiums - on the basis of one man's report (Greenaway) who actually admitted to a motor industry executive that he did not even know the difference between insuring a vehicle and insuring a person.
The insurance industry will be laughing all the way to the bank.” The government has typically ignored all consultees and on the basis of one person's report created this new legislation that once again goes contrary to historical British justice and makes us guilty until we prove our innocence.
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