Police have launched a scheme in Witney to cut the theft of number plates.

Police said the theft of plates could lead to people receiving parking fines, speeding tickets or being involved in a criminal enquiry.

To avoid this from happening, the West Oxfordshire Safer Communities Partnership has teamed up with local firm, KJ’s Motor Car Engineers, at Unit 9B, Two Rivers Industrial Estate, Station Lane, Witney, to replace the screws that attach the plates to a car with tamper-proof ones that cannot be easily undone.

Bill Butcher, strategic crime prevention and reduction specialist for West Oxfordshire, said: “The clutch head screws that we are offering people are very hard to undo.

“They are also a cheap and easy way of ensuring that you avoid any nasty surprises coming through the post, like parking tickets, or a knock at the door from a police officer because your plates were on a car used in a crime.

“We are running this initiative throughout the whole of November and December and it is absolutely free — I hope that lots of people take us up on this.”