Sussex Police Supporting Action Against Illegal Number Plates

Monday, 26 October 2020 12:53

By Karen Dunn, Local Democracy Reporter

Fast car in small Sussex town (stock image)

The Sussex Police & Crime Commissioner has thanked the Chief Constable and her team for their work supporting a Bill aimed at tackling the use of illegal number plates.

At the moment, drivers caught speeding can receive points on their licence but those who either obscure their number plates or remove them completely only face a £100 fine.

While the police have ramped up their efforts to fight antisocial driving by using more fixed and mobile speed cameras, they are of little use if no number plate is visible.

So Chief Constable Jo Shiner and her team have been working with Andrew Griffith, MP for Arundel & South Downs, on a new Bill, which will see points added to the licences of drivers caught without a readable number plate.

Commissioner Katy Bourne said it was ‘quite exciting to see a loophole tightened up’.

The Vehicle Registration Offences (Penalty Points) Bill was presented by Mr Griffith as a Ten Minute Rule Bill in the Commons on October 21, and will receive a second reading on November 27.

Presenting the Bill, he described the ‘misery’, ‘intimidation’ and ‘mental stress’ faced by people in rural areas such as Wisborough Green, Petworth, Bury Hill, Coldwaltham and Tillington as bikers used the public highway as a race track.

He said the problem had reached ‘new intensity during lockdown’, adding:

“A £100 fine for infringing the law on public roads is far less than the cost of admission to a private and regulated track day.”

Ms Shiner said tackling antisocial driving was ‘a real priority’ for the force and a huge amount of work had gone into supporting the Bill.

The Chief Constable added:

“What this Bill will allow us to do is to make sure that those people who try to either remove or cover up their number plate to avoid any kind of speeding or other non-endorsable conviction.

"This will mean that some of those offences actually become endorsable and therefore they get points on their licence which of course is far more of a deterrent, sometimes, than a financial fine.”