GHOST TAXIS EXPOSED: Four in ten taxis and private hire vehicles caught using stealth plates to dodge charges, APPG report reveals
- Perry Richardson
- 15 minutes ago
- 3 min read
A parliamentary inquiry into illegal vehicle registration plates has found widespread use of so-called ghost and stealth plates among taxis and private hire vehicles, with enforcement agencies warning that large numbers of licensed drivers are deliberately making themselves untraceable to avoid charges and penalties.
The report, Ghosts on the Road: Tackling the Rise in Illegal Registration Plates, published in December by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Transport Safety, concludes that taxis and PHVs are among the professional driver groups most heavily implicated in plate tampering. Evidence submitted by Transport for London, the Metropolitan Police and Trading Standards suggests the practice is now systemic in parts of the sector.
TfL told the inquiry it has seen a marked rise in ghost plates fitted to licensed taxis and private hire vehicles, primarily to evade congestion charging, emissions zones and airport drop-off fees. During a joint enforcement operation in March 2023, the Metropolitan Police Service and TfL checked around 1,000 licensed vehicles using specialist ghost-plate detection cameras and found 41 per cent of licensees had non-compliant plates. Follow-up operations later in 2023 still recorded non-compliance rates of 38 per cent, despite increased enforcement activity.
Rochdale Trading Standards, which led Operation Ghost, said plate swapping among taxi drivers was routine. Officers reported that drivers commonly carried their legitimate plates in the boot and fitted them only when expecting inspections. “Every taxi we stopped knew, and had the original plates in the back of the vehicle,” the authority said, adding: “Would you let your daughter, or anyone, go into a taxi that cannot be traced?”.
APPG inquiry finds high levels of illegal number plates in licensed fleets, raising enforcement, revenue and passenger safety concerns
National Trading Standards told the inquiry that the issue is not confined to one region. In oral evidence, officials estimated that “roughly 1 in 5 taxi drivers in the capital are using ghost plates to evade the congestion charge and any local council enforcement or restrictions”, a figure broadly aligned with Metropolitan Police assessments.
The report warns that the implications extend beyond lost revenue. TfL and local authorities raised safeguarding concerns, particularly for women and girls, where a licensed vehicle cannot be reliably linked to its registered keeper through ANPR systems. The APPG notes that a taxi or PHV operating with an unreadable plate undermines one of the core safety controls of the licensing regime, namely traceability after complaints, assaults or serious incidents.
Enforcement bodies also highlighted the operational burden. TfL said identifying offending licensed drivers requires resource-intensive roadside checks rather than automated enforcement, while Rochdale Trading Standards described the scale of plate swapping as evidence that existing penalties are insufficient to deter professional drivers who calculate that the financial gains outweigh the risks.
More broadly, the APPG report estimates that up to one in 15 vehicles on UK roads may be fitted with modified or non-compliant plates, but stresses that professional drivers present a disproportionate risk because of the mileage they cover and their interaction with the public. The inquiry links taxi and PHV plate tampering to wider failures in DVLA oversight, weak supplier regulation and low penalties that have allowed illegal plates to proliferate openly online.
The group is calling for a wholesale overhaul of the number plate system, including banning 3D and 4D plates, introducing tougher licensing and background checks for plate suppliers, and increasing penalties for drivers using illegal plates. For the taxi and private hire sector, the report suggests stronger links between vehicle licensing, plate compliance checks and enforcement action to restore confidence in passenger safety and regulatory fairness.
