Faulty batch of 4D number plates bought by London taxi drivers leave many facing £100 fines

Taxi drivers in the capital have found themselves facing fines and legal trouble for displaying 'illegal' 4D number plates which they believed to be all above board. The Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA) have been inundated with calls from concerned drivers, leading to investigations into the issue.

The drivers, who had purchased what they believed to be legal number plates from a reputable company, were shocked to be stopped by the police and issued fines of £100. They were given a 14-day period to remove the offending number plates. However, it appears that these apparent illegalities were due to a flaw in the plates' design preventing them from being read by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras.

According to TAXI Newspaper, Anthony Street, the LTDA Executive, took it upon himself to contact the company and discuss the situation with the company's owner. The outlet’s owner expressed his shock upon learning about the incidents and immediately began investigating the matter. He reached out to the police to understand why the plates were deemed illegible by the ANPR cameras but received no concrete answers.

Undeterred, the owner urged affected drivers to return their faulty plates for further testing. Subsequent analysis revealed that some of the characters on these plates were indeed not readable by the ANPR cameras, which are responsible for verifying compliance with relevant regulations. It was suspected that a faulty batch of material used for the number plate characters had been supplied to outlet, prompting him to contact their supplier for an investigation into the matter.

The owner has overseen the replacement of all non-compliant plates with new ones that have been thoroughly tested and approved by the appropriate authorities.