{"id":17540,"date":"2026-06-02T05:39:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17540"},"modified":"2026-06-02T05:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:39:27","slug":"nzta-pauses-using-billboard-cameras-to-detect-wof-fraud-despite-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17540","title":{"rendered":"NZTA pauses using billboard cameras to detect WOF fraud, despite success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A trial using cameras in billboards has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/568178\/billboard-camera-footage-used-by-transport-agency-to-spot-cars-and-trucks\">helped spot cars with fraudulent warrants of fitness<\/a>\u00a0(WOF) but the Transport Agency is not rolling out more of this surveillance because it\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/591280\/new-police-powers-no-new-money-for-vital-technology\">can&#8217;t afford to<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The agency has been trying to plug holes in its investigation capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been focusing on garages it suspects of issuing WOFs to vehicles that haven&#8217;t been inspected and were not even in the same town or city.<\/p>\n<p>Using other organisations&#8217; cameras, NZTA can look back at footage to see whether a car was in a different place at the date and time a particular garage or vehicle inspection service says it issued a warrant, for instance, a WOF issued in Auckland when a car was in Hamilton.<\/p>\n<p>The cameras link to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/crime-and-justice\/592623\/bailiffs-to-get-automated-number-plate-recognition-devices-to-help-spot-fine-dodgers\">automated number plate recognition (ANPR) technology<\/a>. WOF data is compared with ANPR records which then detects any discrepancies.<\/p>\n<p>The trial focused on Hamilton and ended with a thumbs-up &#8211; &#8220;NZTA now wishes to adopt [the] platform as part of its standard inspection compliance toolkit to support investigations and regulatory decisions,&#8221; said a report last October brought to light in RNZ&#8217;s inquiries.<\/p>\n<p>The tests used cameras in two networks last year to see if they would help with 13 investigations.<\/p>\n<p>In those 13, they spotted things 28 times that could have &#8220;significantly advanced those investigations&#8221;. As it was a test, they didn&#8217;t actually use the information.<\/p>\n<p>rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A trial using cameras in billboards has\u00a0helped spot cars with fraudulent warrants of fitness\u00a0(WOF) but the Transport Agency is not rolling out more of this surveillance because it\u00a0can&#8217;t afford to. The agency has been trying to plug holes in its investigation capabilities. It&#8217;s been focusing on garages it suspects of issuing WOFs to vehicles that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17542,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17540\/revisions\/17542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}