Thousands of illegal ghost plates on cars revealed by new cameras

Thousands of illegal registration plates on cars and other vehicles have been detected by a new camera system currently being tested on motorways in south-east England, BBC Panorama can reveal.

These plates have been adapted to avoid their details being identified by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems, which are used to enforce speed limits and low emission zones, as well as track criminals.

Illegal plates are putting the public at risk and are far too easy to get hold of, according to one former government advisor.

We have spoken to families who say their lives have been devastated by road deaths where illegal plates were involved.

Filming undercover, we also discovered how easy and cheap it is to buy plates without any background checks.

The minister responsible for vehicle registration across the UK has told us a national plan has now been instigated to understand how widespread the problem of illegal number plates is, and what can be done about it.

The UK has one of the largest networks of ANPR cameras in the world, with 14,000 sites capturing 100 million number plates each day. Many experts believe this system is failing to keep up with tactics used by some drivers determined to avoid recognition.