Police in Wales to catch English drivers with number plate technology

WELSH police could use number plate technology to catch drivers who have arrived from virus hotspots elsewhere in the UK.

First minister Mark Drakeford said officers could patrol highways to enforce his proposed travel ban on those from the worst-hit areas.

The Welsh Labour leader’s comments came after the Police Federation of England and Wales slammed the restrictions as ‘unenforceable’. They said the difficulties of identifying where people were travelling to and from would make it impossible to implement the ban.

But Mr Drakeford suggested officers could use automatic number plate recognition cameras to determine where cars had been registered.

Earlier this week, he said measures to stop those from high-infection areas of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland from entering Wales would be put in place by Friday, if Boris Johnson did not impose UK- wide travel restrictions. Mr Drakeford told the BBC yesterday:

‘Won’t be the only way’

‘Number plates are one of the ways in which they [the police] are able to identify cars that are travelling long distances, but that won’t be the only way.’

He added that the police would apply other monitoring techniques they developed at the peak of lockdown, when those in Wales could not travel more than five miles from home.

National Police Chiefs’ Council figures from July showed that, out of the 281 fines issued in North Wales, 81 involved locals while 188 involved visitors from England.

The English areas which had the highest proportion of offenders were Merseyside, the West Midlands, Cheshire and Greater Manchester – some of the worst-hit areas for Covid infections.

Mr Drakeford added that fines are ‘the last resort, not the first resort’, with officers in the first instance instructed to explain the rules and simply turn vehicles around.