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Number Plate Crime Rises in Uganda
10th February 2006
The Ugandan public
were relieved to hear of
the arrest of alleged
serial killer, Baker
Walusimbi, who used faked number
plates on his car while carrying out his
crimes. Walusimbi, however, was by no
means unique in masking his identity in
this way, and the 'mafia' practice of
illegally changing registration plates is
being used with increasing frequency by
the country's law-breakers.
It was recently revealed that the pick-up
truck originally registered as UG 0501C
has had its number plates removed and
is on the road carrying a new set,
UAD 117D. Alarmingly, the vehicle is
attached to the Vice President's office.
NRM Deputy Spokesman Ofwono
Opondo "mistakenly" said that the VP is
entitled to use 5 official vehicles
because he is still Vice President. Mr
Opondo had assumed that the VP was
openly using the vehicle with its official
registration of UG 0501C. What Opondo
did not realise is that the numbers have
been changed.
Critics insist that the police must move
swiftly and arrest the persons who have
been using the pick-up now criminally
bearing number UAD 117D, which
belongs to an Isuzu Dump lorry. Faking
number plates is only done with criminal
intentions and the public needs to be
protected. Police must establish how
many criminal acts have been
committed by people in that pick-up.
Crime Busts Aided by Number Plates
Technology
16th February 2006
Police in Devon have
seized £43,500 worth of
illegal "Class A" drugs in
Operation Zloty. Zloty is
an initiative involving the sharing of
intelligence between the police and
other agencies such as DVLA and HM
Court Service.
Following up some of this intelligence
led officers to raid an address in
UK & International
Number Plate News
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P32
Ilfracombe where they discovered
heroin, amphetamines and cannabis
with an estimated value of £41,000.
A 41-year-old local man was arrested
and has been remanded in custody.
In addition to disrupting drugs trafficking
in the area, Zloty has swooped on
vehicles without tax discs and pursued
the collection of unpaid penalties from
fine dodgers.
Three other arrests were made due to
impressive new Automatic Number
Plate Recognition systems (ANPR).
The hi-tech mobile camera system was
being used for the first time in the area.
Mounted in a police vehicle, the system
reads the registrations of passing
vehicles and instantly runs them through
a computer database before alerting
officers of potential offences.
A 36-year-old man was arrested for
possessing £2,500 of crack cocaine
when the system identified the
registration of a vehicle belonging to a
suspected drug offender. Other arrests
were made on suspicion of car theft and
drink driving.
Motorcyclist Prosecuted Over James Bond
Style Number Plates
5th March 2006
A motorcyclist in
Tauranga, New Zealand
used a Bond-style
gadget to rotate the
number plate on his vehicle in a bid to
mask his identity from police and speed
cameras. The hapless rider came
unstuck, however, when his luck ran out
and he crashed into a police patrol car.
Garry Leonard Muzyka, 46, from
Cambridge Heights, had installed a
lever next to his petrol tank. When he
operated the mechanism it tilted his
number plates 90 degrees, thus making
it unreadable by cameras or traffic
behind him.
Muzyka was eventually pursued and
taken to court where he was fined
nearly $1700.
Although the self-employed defendant
faced charges over speeding,
The World of Personal Number Plates Regtransfers.co.uk
dangerous driving and failing to stop for
the police, there were no charges
directly relating to his number plate
gadget. In addition to the fines, Muzyka
was banned from driving for six months.
The court was told that Muzyka was
caught by police radar travelling at
154km in a 100kmh area. He was
pursued by police but he continued to
accelerate through to the city. He
eventually came to a stop after he lost
control and crashed into the side of a
police car. Police later examined his
bike and found the mechanism he had
installed to work the number plate trick.
'Bird Flu' Plate Not Sold
7th March 2006
The controversial sale of
a number plate
superficially resembling
another term for bird flu
seems likely to remain with its
unsuccessful vendor. IT worker Craig
Whitcombe, from Cardiff, had tried to
auction the registration number
HN51 FLU on eBay, but the flurry of
bids he expected never happened.
Whitcombe had pitched the plate as
being ideal for doctors, vets or
scientists, but it seems that either
no-one from those professions shared
his sense of humour, or that prospective
buyers were put off by the fact that the
correct number for the notorious virus is
actually H5N1 and not HN51 as
displayed on the registration.
Similarly, no one was tempted by
Whitcombe's 'buy now' price of £20,000.
When a Set of Plates Cost £3!
9th March 2006
The holly green 1966
Singer Gazelle car,
familiar to regular
viewers of ITV's
Heartbeat, has found a new home in
County Antrim. Ulsterman Jimmy Quinn,
from Ballyknock spotted the vehicle
several months ago while looking at
classic cars for sale during a visit to
Tobermore. As soon as he realised it
was one of the stars of his favourite TV
cop drama, Jimmy snapped it up.
Summer 2006