04 Apr 2018

There are a lot of unspecified number of people who have lost their car registration number plates which in turn are used in criminal activities.

One such a person is a Zimbabwean national, whom I met at Broadhurst Police Station where she had gone to report that both of her number plates had gone missing.

During the same intervention at the police station, another woman came in to report that some people using a vehicle with the same registration numbers had stolen her handbag from her vehicle.

Alas, what a surprise! The same number plates have been used in criminal activities. The vehicle, a silver Honda Fit, was captured by CCVT cameras at Mr Veg Supermarket, where the woman had gone to buy vegetables.

Such a tale might seem like an imagined narrative, but this is a true narrative.

Your number plate is more desirable than you think.

The alphanumeric plates attached to the front and back of your vehicle are a proven accomplice in crimes across the country, including petrol drive-offs and burglaries, and they are being stolen at an increasing rate in Gaborone.

Crimes that are related to stolen number plates include burglary, shoplifting, robbery at areas such as filling stations, supermarkets, and sometimes avoidance of traffic-related offences and fines.

The police said they are aware that many people might not report to police when their licence plates are stolen, thinking they may have fallen off, but the reality is that it’s more likely a plate has been intentionally removed than it is to have just fallen off.

The station commander of Broadhurst Police, Superintendent Obusitswe Lokae, whose police station is handling the above matter, confirmed that the theft of number plates is a common thing in his area of jurisdiction.

He explained that number plates are mostly stolen in parking areas when the owner of the vehicle had either gone into a shop or is at work in the office.

Superintendent Lokae said though this is a growing trend, most of the perpetrators are never arrested but the police are working round the clock to put mechanisms in place to arrest the culprits.

However, he appealed to motorists to fasten their number plates so that it is difficult for the perpetrators to remove them easily.

“Because identity theft is now growing for vehicles, motorists and the motor trade, the police and other authorities need to take urgent action to address this problem,” he added.

However, the station commander of Gaborone West Police Station, Superintendent Howard Modo tells quite a different story.

He said in most cases, the cases they normally receive are of those who snatch people’s items (either ladies handbags, cellphones etc) using vehicles without number plates.

“The situation here is that people will report that their items have been snatched by people who were using a car without a number plate. And this is always communicated to us through our radios or walkie takkie,” he added.

However, he could not deny or agree that the theft of number plates is also rampant in his area of jurisdiction.

Mogoditshane Station Commander, Superintendent Agreement Mapeu also said he has not recorded any case of that nature in his area of jurisdiction saying that such cases are mostly rampant in the Broadhurst area.

Number plate theft can enable serious crimes such as robbery, house break-ins, drug trafficking and petrol theft and makes it harder for police to detect, investigate and solve crimes when the identity of a vehicle is hidden. ENDS