Techno Spy

Spotted this by the roadside yesterday as I was driving into Alnwick, thought at first it was a new incarnation of the mobile speed camera but not so.

Closer inspection revealed that this was in fact a Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) camera.
My understanding is that this little tripod mounted camera reads the number plates of passing cars and then a computer in the car, linked to a central mainframe, checks whether the vehicle has valid tax, MOT, and insurance. If the car "fails" on one of these counts there will I am sure be some unwelcome post on it's way pretty quickly.

The camera and car were there for pretty much all day spending time pointing in either direction and during the day it must have checked thousands of vehicles many of which will have been purely local traffic. Unlike on the "A" roads this will presumably pick up folk taking a chance on short journeys to the shops, garage, etc. all of which are very close to the chosen site.

If this picks up a few uninsured motorists I'm all for it but it did come as a surprise to see this just round the corner.