Baph

Or that's what I read anyway. Serious respect for not crying about it like the masses (not talking about the .org here).

All of it has been said above really. Front facing camera won't get your plate, so IF anything comes of it, it's because the operator wrote down your plate. IF they did that, it was dark, lights on, how much did the camera see?

The little tripod outside the van could be a little trick they use to stop glare. On some of the vans they have a glass/plastic cover over the camera. Put a flash inside this at night and you get a nice picture of a speedcamera! So on these vans, they put a little flasher unit outside the van.

As has also been said, it could of been the ANPR setup, but I'm not sure how reliable the ANPR's OCR systems are at night with headlights.