UK Car Number Plate
There was a time when people could trust others when it came to their license plates. Sadly, those times are long gone. It is now a common thing, all over the UK, to hear a firsthand story of how car number plates have been stolen. And although this is a very serious crime, there are the odd drivers that do not know how serious of an issue it is to have ones number plates stolen.Well, to show the seriousness of it all, let us have a look at a probe into cases of stolen number plates that occurred in the North. The results show that in the last six years alone there have been around 4500 number plates stolen from cars, with almost half of these plates being stolen over the last two and a half years alone – indicating that the crime is actually getting worse. Further proof can be seen in the fact that in April of 2012, 17 cars’ number plates were stolen in Consett in, get this, just two hours!
The main reasons that people would want to steal your car’s license plates would be due to many reasons. To name a few:
- The first and obvious reason would be to commit a crime with the victims’ number plates in plain sight. This would throw off the police and make their enquiries a little harder as the witnesses or the cameras that caught the numbers would have seen or shown a number that was stolen.
- Some thieves steal license plates so that they can zoom around the cities recklessly and do whatever they want. The speed cameras that would capture them would show a car with the stolen plates and looked exactly like the original owner’s car. This is known as ‘car cloning’ and all bills that are incurred on the license plate (e.g. road tax) would be charged to the original owner.
Now, whatever the reason may be, you know you do not want to be caught in a nightmare situation like this. So, what are you expected to do before the theft happens to you?
There are theft resistant number plates on sale. You can have them installed and know that it will take a while longer to remove them thus discouraging any thief looking for a quick getaway. The negative aspect of these plates is that they can still be stolen (albeit after more than 3 minutes) and they cost you a lot more than the normal number plates.
As to what you can do after the theft has occurred is to report it immediately to the police who will record your number. Any expenses that are incurred on that license plate will not be your responsibility. Next, you can go and get yourself cheap replacement number plates and then have your car transferred to the new license number.
