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Number plate recognition: when it works, car thieves will swap plates

In central London, TV cameras read every car number plate as it goes past, to check whether the driver paid the Congestion Charge for that day. Now, the Government proposes to extend number plate recognition throughout the country. What will the result be? Easy! - criminals will use fake plates.

The growth of "identity theft" on motor cars in several countries has been noticed in recent years. People have had to fight, sometimes for months, to have parking or speeding tickets rescinded even though they could prove they were somewhere else, and that their car didn't even match the photo of the one seen breaking the law. Now the Government says it proposes "denying criminals the use of the roads" by extending the scheme.

The Register's report - correctly - points out several worrying civil liberty issues raised. But the day after Home Secretary David Blunkett announced that he was definitely going to push for mandatory ID cards for humans, too, it's clear that there are powerful elements dreaming that these schemes will, somehow, stop criminals from cheating.

The statistics, however, show that the more rigorously you insist that people carry identity, the more common identity theft becomes.

Today, fake plates are rare. Today, fake ID cards are unheard of in the UK, at least. But make it possible to trace a car all around the country simply by asking all CCTV cameras to look for it, and what criminal will ever use their own car number plate? Make it mandatory for people to have ID cards, and what illegal immigrant will fail to carry a convincing fake?

Mobile technology is a wonderful thing. When we're just buying gadgets for our own use, the odd complete failure is just something you have to deal with. And a lot of the gadgets are quite fun, and some are even useful.

But we know, already, what happens to identity theft where there is mandatory ID. There are research statistics. Identity theft increases.

Why are these people still behaving as if this isn't true?