Chief Executive Officer of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Julius Neequaye Kotey, has revealed that about five per cent of vehicle number plates currently in use in the country are fake.

Speaking on TV3 on Sunday, January 25, Mr. Kotey said the situation highlights the urgent need to centralise the embossing of number plates under a single authorised company to strengthen security and protect motorists.

He explained that number plates are security documents and should not be produced indiscriminately.

“In terms of security, it will help the Ghanaian consumer. You don’t just allow anyone, anywhere to emboss number plates. That number plate you are embossing is a security document, so we need to be cautious and circumspect about who embosses number plates and for whom,” he said.

According to Mr. Kotey, DVLA data indicates that nearly five per cent of vehicles captured in the system are operating with fake number plates obtained through various illegal means.

He noted that in some instances, fraudsters exploit accident vehicles that are beyond repair by copying their registration numbers and embossing duplicate plates.

“There are several ways they use to get the number plates. Sometimes they move through police stations. Cars involved in accidents that are beyond repair, they look at their numbers and go and emboss. They also go to farmlands where farm equipment doesn’t come back onto the streets and emboss their plates. Others photocopy customs documents and use the same numbers on vehicles that did not pay duty,” he explained.

Mr. Kotey added that the introduction of new DVLA number plates embedded with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips will help curb the menace.

“We’re going to do away with all this. Because there’s a cloning detector as part of the system. There are RFID billboards which will be mounted on various highways. You are passing with a number that is not in our system, it sends a signal to our command center.

“The new toll booth is coming. We are in touch with the Ghana Highway Authority, and we need RFID chip-embedded number plates to be able to communicate with the toll system that is coming.”