The Criminality of Number Plate Infractions

Road Safety

Lanre is a friend and colleague. My last conversation with Lanre was some months ago. Maybe some years. Like Professor Hope Eghagha whose story I shared with you last week, I wish to also share my conversation with Lanre four days after mine with Professor Eghagha, which was also on the number plate matter.

Unlike Professor Eghagha, whose concern was over uploading his newly registered vehicle for safety and security reasons, Lanre’s was specifically on his number plate, which, according to him, is faded and, for your information, an infraction, according to the National Road Traffic Regulations, 2012. His grouse was that when he approached the Commission, which I assume is the Federal Road Safety Corps, he was told to cough out N30,000 which he noted is about the cost of getting a new number plate. This request, my brother lamented, is not fair as he feels the Commission can collect the old one, melt and calibrate it, and give it to citizens at a discount.

We had a lengthy discourse on the matter, including who is responsible for issuing out number plates which for clarity, is not the Corps but the States’ Board of Internal Revenue. The Corps, according to the provisions of the FRSC Establishment Act, 2007 is empowered to design and produce Number Plates for the States.

Lanre also sought to know if it was possible to replace it in another state which I said no. To sum up the number plate turenchi, my explanations rather than dissuade, further infuriated my good friend who promised to begin a campaign against what he referred to as “obnoxious tax laws, especially when the government deliberately used inferior ink to print number plates to collect N30,000 from citizens every year.’’

Notwithstanding Lanre’s agitations, which is a reflection of a handful of motorists, I am excited that both Prof and Lanre, as friends, are law-abiding at a time when some chose not to. Available reports, as I told you last week, indicate that some vehicle owners either drive or keep their vehicles with obscured or irregular licenses.

This is why in the UK, although there is no law against driving a dirty vehicle, when it comes to keeping your number plate clear, you risk paying 1000 pounds for this infraction. This is because a number plate must be readable and not covered by dirt. I learnt that in our clime, some lawbreakers keep their vehicles without a number plate and use them for years to enable them to sell them off as new.

For the records, the number plate crimes rose by 18 percent in 2017 from 7,876 illegal plates in 2016. The current report for 2023 further shows that the number plate crimes rose by 318 percent amid the police crackdown. Crimes related to number plates have risen by 318 percent across the United Kingdom

Failing to comply with the rules could see drivers fined up to 1000 pounds which with the current rate in our clime is about one million plus naira. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in the UK, rules are very stringent on the display of number plates and this should be the case with us too. This is because the plates are used to identify vehicles and make every car unique so that data about these cars can be tracked, stored, and processed.

A further breakdown in the case of the UK reveals that between 2019-2022 in Greater Manchester, there was a 318 percent increase. Number plate violations reported included not displaying a front or rear plate, obscuring the registration mark, and failure to conform to number plate regulations

Merseyside saw increases of 18 percent regarding vehicles, failing to display a front number plate. The same was the case in Humberside, Wiltshire, and Essex. These findings have been bolstered by the reliance on Automatic Number Plate Recognition to police the roads which I hope to see on our roads soon.

Before I dwell on our situation, let me look at why some motorists, like a case I once mediated on, refuse to comply. Some deliberately do so for criminal reasons. Security operatives are sometimes responsible for some infractions. I will deal with this as I go on. Others intentionally remove them because they worry about ruining the aerodynamic aesthetic of their vehicles, especially drivers of supercars. Owners of cars such as Lamborghini, and Ferrari are among the culprits. These super rich are not deterred by the fines which are so small that there are no deterrents.

The consequences for violation are not harsh enough in Nigeria. Same in some other climes. Some climes are considering points on a license or detaining vehicles. It is therefore vital to check if your number plate is road-legal. That was exactly what Prof and Lanre did when they contacted me to ensure they were on the right side of the law.

Those driving second vehicles should check also. Even if you got it from any of the state boards of Internal Revenue, it is vital to ensure they upload a plate to authenticate the genuineness of your vehicle number plate and also safeguard against criminality. This applies to driving schools as some run foul of the rule. Learner drivers should also take note and do the right thing.

In Nigeria, there are cases of number plate violations ranging from the use of plastic, broken or one number plate instead of two or three depending on the category of the vehicle. The use of a defaced number plate or outright non-registration of a vehicle is equally captured as a number plate registration. Meanwhile, authorities daily battle with the illegal transfers of number plates or the use of unauthorized number plates for ulterior motives. There is also the case of the use of Nigerian and foreign number plates as decoys against security operatives.

Number plates that identify a vehicle and its owner whether in the developed clime or Nigeria must show the correct registration number. It is therefore illegal for you to rearrange letters or numbers, or alter them, making them hard to read. Such an act could result in a fine of up to £1,000, which is over N700,000, in the case of the UK and this will cause your vehicle to fail the MOT test. In Nigeria number plate violation is just three thousand naira which is why I am championing a review to deter defaulters.