Dutch police took three billion photos of car licence plates last year

The Dutch police and tax officials take three billion

photographs of car number plates a year, the NRC says on

Friday.

The photographs are used to track stolen cars, suspicious

persons, non-payment of fines and company car drivers,

the paper says.

The paper bases its claims on documents involved in a

court case brought by a company car driver against the tax

office which kicks off in The Hague today.

The driver accuses the tax office of a mass invasion of

privacy by taking so many photographs, which it uses to

check if company car drivers are avoiding tax on their

vehicles.