New Cameras Expose Thousands of 'Ghost Plates' Evading UK Motorway ANPR Systems

Thousands of illegal number plates designed to be invisible to Britain's automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) network have been detected by a new camera system being trialled on motorways in south-east England, a BBC Panorama investigation has found.

The plates in question fall into two categories. The first, "cloned" plates, copy the registration of another legitimate vehicle, meaning at least two cars carry identical letters and numbers while only one is lawful. The second, so-called "ghost plates", display the correct details for the vehicle they are attached to but are manufactured from reflective materials that render them unreadable to most ANPR cameras.

Both types appear entirely normal to the human eye, making them difficult for police officers or members of the public to spot during ordinary observation. The distinction only becomes apparent when the plates are viewed through the infrared lenses used by roadside enforcement equipment.

According to the Panorama investigation, one of the principal suppliers of ANPR technology, MAV Systems, has been testing a new camera capable of identifying and reading ghost plates. At a test site just outside London near the Dartford Crossing, the system recorded an average of more than 1,000 ghost plates per day over several months.

Two further sites have been operating for close to two years. At one location near the M25, daily detections have climbed from roughly 1,000 to nearly 2,000. At the other, positioned near the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkestone, the system is flagging more than 400 plates a day.

The scale of the problem matters because the UK operates one of the world's largest ANPR networks, with 14,000 camera sites capturing around 100 million number plates every day. This infrastructure underpins the enforcement of speed limits and low emission zones, and is also used to track criminals. Many experts now believe the system is struggling to keep pace with the tactics employed by drivers determined to avoid detection.

Tony Porter, a former senior counter-terrorism officer who has advised the government on surveillance cameras, warned that cloned and ghost plates undermine the police's capacity to track organised crime. He said officers need an effective ANPR system "that doesn't have weaknesses [and] doesn't put the public at risk".

Concerns about the consequences of these plates extend well beyond enforcement statistics. Families who have lost relatives in collisions involving illegal plates have described the devastation such practices cause. Sharon Gannon's son, Jason Wallis, died in Buckinghamshire in 2023 after he and his brother-in-law, Lewis Baker, crashed into a car while riding motorbikes at high speed. The car driver was unhurt.

Baker survived the crash and was later jailed for 15 months for dangerous driving. In court, he admitted using a device to conceal his number plate from public view, and also stated that he and Wallis had ridden at high speed on more than 100 occasions. Reflecting on the loss, Gannon said the crash "has broken us all".

A separate case from 2025 saw 81-year-old Graham Slinn killed on a pedestrian crossing when a car bearing cloned plates struck him at high speed. The driver, 20-year-old Cain Byrne, had no licence or insurance and had inhaled nitrous oxide minutes before the collision. He was identified only after police reviewed hours of CCTV footage, one camera capturing the moment he attached the illegal plates to his car. Byrne was jailed for 11 years and six months for causing death by dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.

Nicola Timmis, Slinn's daughter, likened cloned plates to a "gateway drug" that encourages drivers to take escalating risks. She told Panorama that the practice may appear harmless at first but quickly leads to more dangerous behaviour, adding: "It is not a victimless crime."

The investigation also highlighted how easily these products can be obtained. Filming undercover, the Panorama team found that plates can be purchased cheaply and without any background checks. One former government adviser said illegal plates are placing the public at risk and are far too simple to acquire.

In response to the findings, the minister responsible for vehicle registration across the UK confirmed that a national plan has now been initiated to establish how widespread the issue of illegal number plates has become and to determine what action can be taken. The admission signals official recognition that the problem is significant enough to warrant a coordinated response.

The new camera trials suggest that technological countermeasures may be possible, though the detection figures also indicate just how prevalent ghost plates have become on some of the country's busiest routes. The coming months are likely to shape whether the national plan translates into tougher enforcement or regulatory change.

The BBC Panorama programme "Ghost Plates: Drivers Cheating the Law" examines how cloned and ghost number plates leave innocent motorists facing fines, debt collection threats and years of stress. It is available on BBC iPlayer and airs on BBC One, and on BBC Two in Northern Ireland, at 20:00 on Monday 28 September.