Parking permits and road-tax discs are an easy target for thieves. Although they are marked with a car’s licence number, the print is often so small that stolen discs pass unnoticed when used on other vehicles. Now HHSP of Birmingham is suggesting a new type of material that makes theft pointless (GB 2364817). The new permit or disc is divided into two areas, each bearing the same licence number and expiry date. But one half is made of a two-layer sandwich of weak, loosely bonded paper. If anyone tries to pull the disc or permit off the windscreen, the fragile paper comes away, exposing a “void” message pre-printed on the bottom of the sandwich.
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