Town Hall Number Plate Spies, Caught in the Act

Snoops at local town halls across the country have been caught in the act, using the DVLA’s database to spy on people.

The Big Brother tactics emerged after councils were given the go ahead to use DVLA car registration records, strictly to track down owners of ­abandoned ­vehicles.

Instead, bureaucrats have been checking up on residents suspected of other offences that have nothing to do with motoring, in a blatant breach of the rules.

As a result, several councils have been banned from accessing the database and many more have received warnings after serious breaches were uncovered.

155 of the 432 local authorities allowed to use the ­database were audited, showing that the DVLA’s ­system was accessed 750 times a day in the 2009/10 financial year.

However, it was discovered that ­councils were using the system to try and find people for a variety of non motoring offences including horse fouling, littering and owning unruly/dangerous dogs.

Red coded warnings were sent by the DVLA to the chief executives of 56 authorities where ­serious breaches of the system had been uncovered. A further 99 also received warnings about abusing the system and 12, which failed to make the changes requested by the DVLA, have been banned ­altogether.

Campaign director of Big Brother Watch, Dylan Sharpe, said: "The outrageous and often illegal abuse of the DVLA database is yet another example of the way in which local ­councils will use any available means to keep a check on their residents.

"Law abiding people, or those suspected of very minor offences, are regularly having their ­personal lives exposed.

"They are being spied on for ­nonsensical reasons by these inflated town hall bureaucrats.

"The Government needs to rein in this sort of clandestine snooping as a matter of urgency."

Inspectors found councils breaking the rules by searching for registration plates with partial ­numbers, or by failing to log in and out of the database correctly.

Councils were given 24 hour access to the database to make it easier to find the owners of abandoned vehicles.

After a move by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs the access was upgraded to help council staff investigate so called SDHp "environmental crimes".

A DVLA spokesman said: "We carry out regular audits of users to ensure they respect the terms and conditions of the contract and user agreements which cover this service. The reasons for suspension range from failure to respond to an audit letter to failure to comply with record keeping or data access requirements.

"In most cases, suspensions were related to mismanagement and record keeping, rather than inappropriate access."

The barred authorities are Nottingham City and Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, Corby in Northamptonshire, Brighton and Hove, ­Hastings and Lewes, all in East Sussex, ­Elmbridge in Surrey, Hull in East ­Yorkshire, Tower Hamlets in east ­London, ­Blackpool in Lancashire, ­Bedford in Bedfordshire and Stroud in Gloucestershire.




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Driver allowed to keep satanic plate

A driver in Skye was cleared in court after it was claimed that cyclists, who complained about her driving, did not like her "satanic" S666 SKY car number plates.

Sally Phelps, 65, was accused at Portree Sheriff and JP Court of careless driving in her black Volvo sports car by passing too close to a couple of women cyclists and frightening them. She was found not guilty after defence solicitor Duncan Burd produced a Bible in court and told the three magistrates on the bench: "The two cyclists were annoyed at the devil's car going past them so decided to report her to the police."

Yesterday, Mrs Phelps, a community councillor, of Kilmuir House guest house, Kilmuir, said: "I am not scrapping my unique registration plate, despite its apparent controversy. I had no idea my car number had connections with the devil.

"When my husband, Roy, bought the number several years ago it was for the 'SKY' part. The 666 bit came with it."

One of the cyclists, Fiona MacDonald, 49, who said in evidence she was a Christian, claimed she "felt the heat" of the car as it passed her with its "number of the beast" registration plates.

Mr Burd told the court; "In the Bible, Revelations 13:18 says 'Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man. His number is 666'."

Fiscal Stewart Maciver told the magistrates; "It is not the case that the cyclists were out to get her as she shot past in her fancy Volvo. There is nothing more sinister than it is a distinctive plate."

Both Mrs MacDonald and her friend, Victoria MacLean, 42, both of Uig, Skye, denied that the 666 registration plates had prompted a complaint to the police.

The chairwoman of the magistrates told Mrs Phelps; "It has been a difficult decision but there is reasonable doubt, so you are entitled to an acquittal. You are not guilty."




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Unfineable Number Plates in London

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Council names and shames foreign super car drivers who flout parking laws

Brazenly pulled up on yellow lines in some of London's most salubrious locations, the wealthy owners of these super cars pay little heed to the rules of the road.




But a council is naming and shaming drivers of foreign-registered vehicles in an attempt to recover nearly 4 million owed in unpaid parking fines.

Westminster Council claims the owners of Bugattis, Ferraris and Lamborghinis routinely flout parking restrictions because they know officials are powerless to trace them in their own countries.

The council, Britain's largest parking authority, accuses the culprits of a "blatant disregard" for the country's road laws by refusing to pay the penalties.

In the past three years, offenders have failed to settle a total of 36,332 parking tickets, leaving the council 3,776,490 pounds out of pocket.

Top of the authority's most wanted list is the owner of a £300,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom, who owes them 2,000 pounds for 18 parking tickets.

While the owner of a Bugatti Veyron L'Edition Centenaire would have lavished 1.2 million on buying their 250mph car, they have failed to pay a 120 pound fine for parking on a single yellow line outside Selfridges.

Despite having the distinctive car registration 111111, the council is also struggling to track the driver of a red and black Bugatti Veyron ticketed this month near Marble Arch. All three cars are on Arabic plates.

Other prolific offenders include owners of a US registered Hummer and a Lamborghini Murcielago from Dubai.

Westminster Council is calling on the Government to help establish a system of international co operation to allow local authorities to trace foreign motorists – 80 per cent of whom refuse to pay fines.

Currently, there are no laws to provide parking authorities with access to overseas driver and vehicle registration data to chase up parking fines.

New EU legislation will allow member states to share such information but experts say British authorities will not be able to use the law because parking offences are not classified as criminal offences in this country.

Cllr Lee Rowley, Westminster Council's cabinet member for parking, said: "British taxpayers can no longer foot the bill for foreign motorists who seem think the rules of this country do not apply to them.

"We would like to see a more rigorous system put in place to hold these drivers to account and send a clear message that this blatant disregard of the law will not be tolerated."

Officials say the problem is most pronounced among vehicles registered in the Middle East, which are frequently seen parked on yellow lines, in bus lanes or in residents' parking bays in expensive parts of the capital.

Many wealthy Arabs have their sports cars flown into Britain by private jet during the so called 'season' in July and August, when it has become fashionable to visit London.

The issue follows complaints, from residents in Knightsbridge over sports car owners shattering their night time peace by racing through the streets around Harrods.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed last week that campaigners claim wealthy Middle Eastern visitors are making residential roads "like the starting grid of Le Mans" since the Qatari royal family purchased the department store in May.

Official figures earlier this year show that owners of foreign registered vehicles evade motoring fines totaling nearly 15 million pounds each year across Britain.

Sparks, a coalition of London councils established to tackle the problem, said 330,000 tickets worth 12.9 million are issued to foreign registered vehicles in London each year for parking and other contraventions. One in eight foreign registered vehicle owners fails to pay their congestion charge.

In June it emerged that foreign diplomats in the capital owe more than 37 million in unpaid congestion charges, parking fines and other motoring penalties.

Last year, Westminster Council wrote off more than 20 million in unpaid parking fines after failing to trace the owners of offending vehicles.

Owners of vehicles on foreign number plates are allowed to drive them temporarily in Britain for a total of six months in any 12 month period without registering them or taxing them in the UK.

After that they must register and tax them with British plates through the DVLA.

Those with number plates bearing letters or numbers not identifiable in Britain must obtain a temporary registration mark from the DVLA for the duration of their visit.






Original article by Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:30AM BST 14 Aug 2010
Telegraph.co.uk

Brussels "Unifies" European Number Plates

Europe's holiday makers are hitting the roads, this summer, with more or less uniform number plates, after a 12 year debate over their design and colour schemes. Belgium finally settled a political argument over the tags in June, removing the last obstacle to introducing the new plates in all 27 European countries.

However, "uniform" is a relative term in Europe, where there are dozens of languages and so ways to even say "number plate". There are already exceptions to the suggested EU standard of black lettering on white background and a European flag on the left. British drivers, of course, being allowed to opt out altogether.

Drivers still show their nationalities on the EU number plates, with a country code placed within the ring of gold stars on the EU flag, or just below it: D for Germany, NL for Netherlands, S for Sweden, E for Spain and so on.

Issuing nations may also allow local or regional symbols.
For motorcycles, there is a square EU-style tag.

American style number plate slogans would probably go against the rules, but
one option might have been "In Varietate Concordia" ("United in Diversity"), the EU motto that is available in Latin and the union's 23 languages, no one opted to take this up, though.

EU officials first recommended uniform black on white plates back in 1998, as they would be more readable and embody the union's single market. The European number plates would also help cameras spot speeders, tax dodgers and vehicles jumping through electronic toll booths in a continent with largely open borders.

Most EU members, and even some non members like Norway, now make EU plates mandatory.

In places like Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Denmark and Britain however, the number plates are available but optional. In Britain, drivers are entitled to replace the EU flag with those of either England, Scotland or Wales.

Paul Watters, head of public policy at Britain's Automobile Association, said few UK motorists choose the EU flag.

"The government has allowed us to have the freedom to choose to display national flags," he said. "We wouldn't want to see the EU flag become compulsory in the U.K."

France began issuing the EU tag in 2009 and also tried to drop traditional regional indicators, to avoid stigmatizing drivers from less fashionable areas.

Parisian cars mostly carried the number 75, while 93 is the indicator for nearby Seine-Saint-Denis, a Parisian suburb with a large immigrant population.

Richard Mallie from the French "departement" of Bouches du Rhone (regional indicator 13) and 230 other French lawmakers rebelled, insisting the departement number was "a matter of roots, of attachment to an area."

They won the day which means French drivers can now pick any department number they like. Mallie says 75 percent still opt for their departement of residence.

In Belgium, the most ardent proponent of European number plate unification and home to the EU headquarters in Brussels, the EU tag started two years of debate between Dutch and French speaking politicians. The French speakers rejected black on yellow tags as they are the colors of Belgium's Dutch speaking north. Neither side where interested in black on white.

In June, Belgium decided its HGV's would adopt the EU plates, but passenger vehicles could have dark red letters instead of black.

Denmark opted for a black on white EU plate but included a red boarder around it, hinting at its red and white flag.

Europe's shift to standard number plates may sound innocent enough but it is an emotive point.

In the 1990s, EU officials sensed a backlash to what former British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd called a "European superstate inveigling its way into every nook and cranny of Europeans' lives." That backlash would be blamed in 2005 for the death of the EU constitution.





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Next DVLA Number Plate Auction

The next DVLA number plate auction is to be held at the Heritage Motor Center, Warwickshire on 4th, 5th and 6th August.

There are some great number plates with low reserves, such as '999 A' at 2900 pounds, '56 ME' at 2700 pounds, and the highly sought after '8 O' at 10,000 pounds, but you can expect to see the latter fetch upwards of five times that amount.

CLICK HERE to view the full auction catalogue.




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