MOTORISTS with outstanding traffic fines beware - there are now eight "spy cars" being driven around Cape Town and Johannesburg to help local traffic police nab offenders.

The "spy cars", introduced recently by the City of Cape Town's traffic department, are traffic vehicles fitted with Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras that scan the number plates of moving and parked cars at highway speeds.

The City of Cape Town said after implementing this technology at roadblocks two years ago, they decided to try it out on six cars in October. Within three weeks they had nabbed "thousands" of offenders.

Now the Roads Traffic Management Corporation - the Department of Transport's traffic law enforcement and implementation wing - says it wishes it could roll out the system nationally.

Thabo Letsoletsane of the RTMC's law enforcement department said: "If we had the money we would put these cameras in every traffic vehicle because they are able to detect expired disks, outstanding traffic fines and even warrants of arrest."

On the first day of the "spy car" test, Cape Town's traffic department arrested 35 drivers.

Traffic spokesperson Chief Inspector Merle Lourens said since October 20 one of the spy cars scanned 5,743 vehicles.

They arrested 11 drivers for outstanding warrants of arrest, recovered two stolen vehicles, scanned three fraudulent number plates, found 36 unlicenced cars and seized 29 number plates for investigation.

Lourens said a patrol by one of the vehicles led to collecting of R230,250 in unpaid fines from executed warrants in just nine days.

The Johannesburg Metro Police Department said it had similar technology in place.

Spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said the system is linked to both the JMPD and SAPS databases.