12:02 am, March 16, 2011
RENAULT Manchester and Greater Manchester Police joined forces recently to help reduce number plate theft.
In a day-long event on March, 12, dealership staff handed out special tamper proof screws to motorists free of charge.
One of Renault Manchester’s qualified technicians was also on hand to help motorists fit the special screws to their vehicles which, once applied, are hard to undo. Police officers also offered advice to motorists about how to avoid having their vehicles broken into.
The campaign was started to help battle the growing problem of number plate theft in the UK. Latest police figures show that there are currently more than 40,000 sets of number plates stolen every year in the country from car, vans and commercial vehicles.
Fiona James, crime reduction advisor for Salford who was there on the day, said: ‘The screws only take a couple of minutes to fix to your number plate but could make all the difference between it being stolen or not.
‘People that have their number plates stolen usually receive parking and speeding fines, which take time to resolve and can cause a lot of stress and inconvenience.’
Geoff Harrison, service manager at Renault Manchester, added: ‘The day was a great success and we’re delighted we could help the police out with this growing problem.
‘Fitting the tamper proof screws can help cause a lot of unnecessary headaches to motorists and we hope this event has not only helped our customers but helped spread the message to other drivers in the area.’
