MORE than 200 drivers in Maidstone turned out to take advantage of the police’s ‘Safe Plates’ initiative aiming to tackle number plate theft.

This nationwide problem, where plates are stolen from existing vehicles, allows criminals to ‘clone’ other cars while innocent motorists can incur speeding fines, congestion charges and other offences as a result.

In order to combat this, police in Maidstone have discovered an effective way to deter thieves by use of anti-tamper screws. These are 1-way screws and once fitted they cannot easily be removed. The screws are then covered with a security cap as an added deterrent.

Altogether 204 drivers attended the event held in Sainsbury’s car park to have new screws fitted in their number plates and 51 sets of screws were also given out to shoppers without cars.

The initiative has been run in conjunction with the RAC and Neighbourhood Watch, who were on hand to offer other guidance and advice regarding crime prevention.

Crime Reduction Officer for Maidstone, John Grant, said: "The Safe Plates initiative has been a fantastic success. We are the first area in Kent to run this initiative which means Mid Kent is leading the way in preventing number plate theft.

"Victims of this kind of crime might not be aware until speeding, parking and congestion penalty charge tickets arrive on the doormat. You then have the difficulty and inconvenience of convincing the authorities that it was not your car."

He added: "Hundreds of motorists have protected their cars against criminals thanks to our partnership effort. If any motorists missed out on our roadshow, they can contact me on 01622 604383 and I can send them a crime prevention pack with the anti-tamper screws included."

A police spokesman said: "We would ike to offer our thanks to Sainsbury’s who very kindly provided a location for this initiative."