Number’s up for car plates thieves

By Sarah Schwager
CRANBOURNE police have warned car owners to take more caution with their vehicles’ number plates as petrol prices rise.
Detective Senior Sergeant Bernie Kaminski, of Cranbourne CIU, said it was becoming a huge problem in the area, with thefts of number plates equating to about a third of all thefts from motor cars.
“We are going to have a blitz in relation to the theft of number plates and fraudulent use of number plates,” Det Sen Sgt Kaminski said.
The operation will be conducted by the Cranbourne CIU Tasking Unit.
“There is a correlation between thefts of number plates and incidences of theft of petrol,” Det Sen Sgt Kaminski said.
“At the same time, we will be targeting those offenders as well.”
Last month there were 66 thefts from cars reported in the Cranbourne district, with a third of those thefts of number plates.
Det Sen Sgt Kaminski said about 75 per cent of those thefts were in residential areas. There were also 20 reported drive-offs in Cranbourne in April.
Det Sen Sgt Kaminski said last month they conducted a similar operation over two days and 10 people were charged and taken to court with various traffic offences.
Police also gave out 26 penalty notices.
Det Sen Sgt Kaminski urged people to look at various ways of securing their number plates.
He said besides oneway screws, bolting the number plates to the car was also effective, as were pop rivets.
“You can also put glue on the head of the screws to fill up the recess so they can’t be used,” he said.