Number plate offences

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/25/002960/O

 Version Date: 20/03/2025

The Performance Analysis Department have provided the following information.

PA used both the STORM incidents and Crime Niche universes on Business Objects.

Within STORM, in the incident description, the keywords ‘obscured’, ‘indistinguishable’, ‘number plate’ and ‘dirty number plate’ were searched. On reviewing the results, there was nothing related to obscured or indistinguishable number plates.

Within the Crime Niche universe, in the occurrence summary, the same keywords were searched and produced zero results.

The Home Office codes of ‘810/90’ which are ‘drive a vehicle with registration mark obscured/indistinguishable’ and ‘keep a vehicle with registration mark obscured’ were also searched.

PA also searched the CCCJS codes for the same offences of ‘VE94046’ and ‘VE94152’. This provided zero results in relation to obscured or indistinguishable number plates.

Please can you provide, for the area covered by Dorset Police, the total number of offences recorded in 2024 to motorists for having a registration plate that was mark obscured / indistinguishable?

Nil return.