back to article ANPR bags alleged uninsured pirate godfathers

Breaking news has revealed that government vehicle tracking benefits us all, by ridding the community of desperate criminals. Durham plods, using the Automatic Numberplate Recognition (ANPR) technology that handwringing media pinkos make such a fuss about, on Monday snared what they say is a brace of heavyweight villains. The …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Keep em coming

    No Paris angle,

    Little IT angle, copied discs and the like.

    But keep these stories coming, please.

    Fun, humour, just what we need.

    What was it Blair said, education,education,education, why were these ne'er do wells excluded from that agenda?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Drugs...

    Under basic supply and demand figures, if there is a reasonably fixed supply of drugs, but you remove the main customers (the ones who can afford them - musicians) then demand slumps, thereby decreasing the average price. Good for the man on the street who wants to get high. Is that what they mean by the link between piracy and drugs?

  3. Stuart Van Onselen
    Coat

    Director General.

    AFAIK, the proper contraction of "Director-General" is "Director" not "General". For example, the plural is "Directors-General" not "Director-Generals".

    Of course, the esteemed Mr Page must know this, so this was surely just one more piece of well-deserved sarcasm.

    But for the rest of us, we'd better use the proper form, or the dreaded Grammar Secret Police will kick down our doors in the middle of the night...probably with BPI and FACT in tow.

  4. Luke Wells
    Paris Hilton

    Wow, hope I never get stopped by the police.

    What the hell ?

    "30,000 discs comprising music, films, TV series, and computer games. Several Xboxes were also recovered along with recording equipment, toner cartridges and around £500 in cash."

    OK, I don't quite have 30,000 discs, but I have at least 5,000 ORIGINAL DVD's, Music CD's, PC software, and console games in my entire collection.

    I have "some" xbox's... for playing network halo mostly,

    Toner cartridges.... yep.. got some of them

    £500 in cash? Must have at least that collectivly in my pinball/fruit macine as used for saving up money, it'll all be in £1 and 20ps, but yep got that.

    Just need to make sure I don't get pulled by the police, though my car IS insured, so hopefully they won't raid my house and take away my toner cartridges and 20p's

  5. Piers
    Happy

    LOL

    luvly reporting style. Heaven knows what anyone without a good grasp of the nuances of English will make of it tho'

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    Lewis Page

    Can I vote for Lewis as Prime Minster instead of Biffa Bacon or Lord Snooty?

  7. Dan

    just the facts

    this sends a clear message to us all. if you are considering a criminal career, murder, blackmail, drugs, armed robbery, people trafficking, burglary are all safer options than knocking off a few dvds.

  8. Natalie Gritpants

    Saw a brave soul on the M4 this morning.

    Driving a GMC Novolo (ugly, pointless 2+2 flatbed). The plate on the back was a square one and he had a tow bar beneath it. On top of the tow bar was an arrangement of metal things that neatly obscured all the writing on the number plate. Very clever mate, but even if the cameras were all rear facing, just how many GMC Novolos are there in the UK?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @stuart

    Wouldn't that be the Secret Grammar Police ?

  10. Keith Turner
    Pirate

    Free?

    Where's the free drugs?

    Am I living in the wrong part of town?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Piracy & Drugs

    I, for one, am glad there's such a close link as it cut's down on the number of shopping trips you need to make thereby helping the environment.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Clear message

    I think the message is that if you're going to do something like "Piracy", pay your car tax so you don't get picked up "randomly". I suppose they had a nice little earner, spoiled by not spending the relatively trivial sum needed to get a disc.

    Or if you're wanting to be invisible and you're a crim anyway, clone some plates on a car the same model and colour.

  13. Biton Walstra

    It's about time...

    You guys are really living in the dark ages...

    We known this kind of systems for years. No need to buy and clue tax discs on your windscreen or carry around those (easy to fake) papers they call here car / mot or insurance certificates.

    bt

  14. Gareth

    A crystal ball...

    So all these Government incursions on UK civil liberties "will only be used for the most serious of crimes"?

    Give 'em an inch to fight terrorism, they'll take a mile for fighting parking offenses... *sigh*

  15. This post has been deleted by its author

  16. Clovis

    Traffic surveilance system apprehends uninsured untaxed drivers shock

    It's the end of civilisation as we know it. First they stop petty criminals driving without insurance and tax, and second they'll be hauling pensioners off to the gas chambers. No way you can have the first and not the second!

    To the barricades, comrades!

  17. Steve B

    Copied discs but not copied plates?

    If you really want to be a successful criminal and not get caught in this country, the logical thing to do is to use false plates from a matching car and not speed.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Driving without insurance upsets more than the insurance industry

    For example, it hits the pocket of every legitimate motorist who is paying to pick up the costs these criminals incur when they *do* damage something or hurt someone.

    If ANPR helps redress the balance a bit in favour of the ordinary decent bill-paying road user (not just motorist), maybe it has some redeeming features.

    Mind you, as noted above, there needs to be something done about the ease with which totally dodgy number plates can be acquired...

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    @Biton Walstra

    Ah but we do have the technology - that is why the police can drive around waiting for the computer to go "bing!" (or whatever they set it to - they can have their own sound effects).

    But being British we can't automate things for the average citizen. I mean, we're BRITISH dammit, we LIKE queueing pointlessly. We like beaurocracy. Why else would we be forced to go to the Post Office to renew our tax with proof that we are:

    1. Insured.

    2. Have MOT.

    3. Are allowed to buy tax

    I for one am concerned that when given a producer we have to choose a police station. Surely one should be randomly picked & then we should be forced to walk there?

  20. Law
    Pirate

    Arrrgggg, Kings Men

    Classic.... master of the written word! :)

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