ANPR confuses T-shirt with personalised number plate

Occurred: October 2021

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A couple in Bath, UK, were issued with a fine after the local council's license plate recognition system confused the car's number with a word on the T-shirt of a local pedestrian.

Dave and Paula Knight had received the fine for supposedly driving in a bus lane in Bath, despite not being in the city at the time. It transpired a CCTV camera had detected the word 'KNITTER' on a pedestrian's clothing when she had been walking down the bus lane, and confused it with Mr Knight's personalised number plate KN19 TER.

Bath and Somerset Council later admitted nobody had checked the computer-generated image, and agreed to cancel the fine, which had increased from GBP 60 to GBP 90 after the couple had resisted pating within 30 days.

Databank

Operator: Bath and North East Somerset Council
Developer: 

Country: UK

Sector: Govt - municipal

Purpose: Detect traffic violations

Technology: Automated license plate/number recognition (ALPR/ANPR)
Issue: Accuracy/reliability

Transparency

Page info
Type: Incident
Published: September 2023