No escape for illegal drivers

8:10pm Friday 25th May 2007

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Illegal drivers have no place to hide from detection in Oxford.

Hundreds of legal drivers pass by the police in-car automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system every day relatively unnoticed.

But when the on-board computer spots a driver who should not be on the road, police can pull the motorist over and get their vehicle off the streets.

Today, I went on patrol with Pc Kevin Crick, who stopped a driver in Barns Road, Cowley, after his number plate was flagged up on the computer.

Within an hour, the car was towed away after the police national computer showed it was being driven with no licence or MoT - and the 20-year-old driver was under arrest.

Pc Crick said the in-car system is not a form of 'big brother' but stopped illegal drivers and criminals going about their business.

Insp Steve Bridges said the camera and computer were valuable investigative tools. He said: "Finding people who have not insured their car or are disqualified from driving helps us target criminality on the roads. Records show 75 per cent of disqualified drivers have previous criminal records. Quite often when people are stopped with an illegal vehicle on the road, it will lead to other things."

Later, the computer in Pc Crick's police car spotted two other vehicles being driven illegally - but both were lost in traffic.

However, it was the policeman's eye and not the technology which spotted the next traffic offender who was driving along Iffley Road speaking on his mobile phone.

Robert Marsh, 33, of Birmingham, accepted a mobile phone awareness course, costing £74, in return for not having three points on his licence.

He said: "I've got no excuse as I've got hands-free in my car, which makes it worse. I'm just grateful I haven't got three points. Hopefully, it will make me think."

Mr Bridges added: "The ANPR can find drivers everything from armed robbery to having no tax.

"The amount of vehicles being seized is tailing off but there is still a sufficient amount of vehicles on the road being driven illegally."