A Saltash firm specialising in sophisticated and powerful vehicle number plate recognition technology has been taken over.

The team at chartered accountants and business advisers PKF Francis Clark oversaw the takeover of ESSA Technology by Jenoptik Traffic Solutions UK.

Nick Tippett said: ’ESSA, founded by the current directors 30 years ago, has long been a trusted partner to government and security agencies, with a track record of developing innovative number plate recognition applications – as well as working with businesses on vehicle information management platforms.

’We are pleased to have supported our long-standing client in achieving a successful exit, whilst ensuring that the cutting edge software it has developed continues to be a market leading product.’

ESSA Technology will become part of Surrey-based Jenoptik, which is a subsidiary of the German business Jenoptik AG, bringing to the UK and international markets a wide range of end to end security, monitoring and enforcement applications.