The latest ANPR systems have no problems with foreign plates/daft fonts. there used to be problems with how they picked up black and silver plates but that's been resolved.
2001 on plates which display the dealer's name and postcode are used to track down stolen vehicles/help in crimes. all other plates that comply to the bsu standard mean there is some quality control over them, so the plates are more likely to last the length of the vehicle, rather than becoming distorted and letting water in covering the letters as some 'custom' plates do.
