Green-washing number plates in the UK
The ‘green’ number plates recently introduced in the UK and meant for electric vehicles can be illegally bought by petrol and diesel owners for just £20 due to a checks loophole.
The problem is that some businesses tasked with supplying the ‘green’ number plates don’t seem to feel obliged to take the time to ensure that the car in question qualifies with the corresponding V5C document.
This bureaucratic step takes a little time with mailing or scanning the right documents, but is obviously the key to the success of decreasing pollution in particular zones. While motorists can be fined up to £1000 for falsely displaying green plates so they can make use of the parking and access benefits, those supplying the plates don’t appear to have many checks or legal accountability.
As this was discovered, it also threw light onto a whole other underground business, namely companies enabling people – ie also criminals – to clone vehicle registration numbers to avoid being caught by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (APNR) cameras.
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