Project EDWARD has announced a webinar focusing on the fast-growing threat of illegal ‘ghost plates’ and their impact on enforcement, crime and community safety.
The online event, which takes place on Friday 12 December at 10:30am, will bring together technical, regulatory and enforcement experts to explain the scale of the problem and how new technology and tougher oversight can help tackle it.
The key objectives of the webinar will be:
- Increase professional understanding: equip road safety practitioners, enforcement partners and policymakers with a clear, shared picture of how ghost plates work, how widespread they are and the risks they pose to deterrence and justice.
- Showcase effective responses: highlight current and emerging technology, regulatory tools and enforcement approaches) that demonstrably detect and deter the use and supply of ghost plates.
- Drive coordinated action: Inspire attendees to review their own local strategies, strengthen partnerships and support national efforts (including regulation, intelligence-sharing and public communication) aimed at closing loopholes and restoring confidence in number plate and ANPR systems.
The webinar is being convened due to the significant risk posed by drivers who believe they can drive and offend with impunity. A line-up of high-profile contributors is being finalised; currently the event will feature:
- Tom Duckham, chief executive of Redspeed International, a UK-based leader in enforcement camera technology. Tom and his team have been working alongside police forces to detect vehicles fitted with plates designed to defeat Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems.
- Rob Laugharne, chair of the British Number Plate Manufacturers Association, widely regarded as a leading voice on the integrity of the UK’s number plate system and an outspoken critic of the “Wild West” market in illegal plates.
- Spencer Marsh, National Trading Standards intelligence officer, who has recently given evidence to MPs on ghost plates and illegal plate supply. Spencer will provide insight into how rogue sellers and criminal users are being identified and disrupted.
Why ghost plates matter
Recent pilots have revealed the true extent of the ghost plate issue, with Operation Phantom in Birmingham alone detecting more than 4,300 instances of illegal ghost plates in just two weeks, involving almost 3,000 separate vehicles that would most likely have evaded traditional ANPR systems.
Nationally, figures suggest tens of thousands of offences linked to obscured or non-compliant plates each year, with ghost plates and cloned registrations increasingly used to evade speeding penalties, clean air charges and other enforcement methods, while also enabling broader criminal activity.
Tom Duckham warns that allowing vehicles to operate in this illegal way undermines deterrence, shifts fines onto innocent motorists and weakens trust in remote and automated enforcement.
“Projects such as Operation Phantom show that ghost plates are not a niche problem – they are widespread on everyday roads and are actively exploited by those who want to drive and offend with impunity,” he said.
“By combining specialist camera technology with determined enforcement and informed public debate through initiatives such as Project EDWARD, we will strip away that anonymity and restore confidence in the systems designed to keep communities safe.”
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