(Cheap) legal plates

Rover_Driver

EdGasket wrote: »

How can ebay sellers just make up and send out plates without checking the log book and registered address?

Because they are not sold as 'Registration Plates', but as 'show plates', they may be identical to, and manufactured to meet, the number plate requirements.
Or they are outside the UK and the legislation does not apply to them.

EdGasket

Rover_Driver wrote: »

Because they are not sold as 'Registration Plates', but as 'show plates', they may be identical to, and manufactured to meet, the number plate requirements.
Or they are outside the UK and the legislation does not apply to them.

That's my point; the law doesn't properly deal with the issue.

So if I or anyone else wanted, I could find a car similar to mine, check its insured and taxed online for free and then get some number plates made up for £12 with no questions asked for that car, stick them on my own car and probably never get caught while saving ££££'s in tax and insurance and possibly dart charges and parking charges also.

AdrianC

EdGasket wrote: »

That's my point; the law doesn't properly deal with the issue.

So how WOULD you like to see the legislation prevent it?

[Deleted User]

AdrianC wrote: »

So how WOULD you like to see the legislation prevent it?

Stop allowing "show plates" to be made would be a start to ending the loop hole.

AdrianC

Deleted_User wrote: »

Stop allowing "show plates" to be made would be a start to ending the loop hole.

Small problem with that - it's already illegal for anybody in any part of the UK to manufacture anything bearing a UK vehicle registration mark, but which doesn't conform to the laws regarding display format, and has been since 2008.

So...

Rover_Driver

Which is one of the problems, it is illegal if the 'show plate' does not comply with the same regulations as a 'registration plate', but not if it does.

[Deleted User]

AdrianC wrote: »

Small problem with that - it's already illegal for anybody in any part of the UK to manufacture anything bearing a UK vehicle registration mark, but which doesn't conform to the laws regarding display format, and has been since 2008.

So...

Stop allowing the manufacturer of "show plates" that appear to be "legal plates" as per all the dodgy eBay plate sellers.

Plate manufacturers should be required to scan the V5 document and it along with the document ref should be checked via an online database at DVLA before the machine is allowed to print the plates off.

Tax and MOT are all online now so it's not like an impossible task.

EdGasket

AdrianC wrote: »

So how WOULD you like to see the legislation prevent it?

As per posts;
1) make it illegal to sell anything that looks remotely like a number plate without full checks being carried out.
2) Only allow number plates to be purchased from licenced outlets
3) Add the VIN to the number plate so a roadside check by police could quickly identify cloned plates.
4) Make all existing cars fit the new plates which include VIN.

It's not foolproof but a lot better than the free-for-all we have at the moment.

AdrianC

EdGasket wrote: »

As per posts;
1) make it illegal to sell anything that looks remotely like a number plate without full checks being carried out.

Has been for eight years.

2) Only allow number plates to be purchased from licenced outlets

Has been for fifteen years.

3) Add the VIN to the number plate so a roadside check by police could quickly identify cloned plates.

Which would need to be cross-referenced back to DVLA, wouldn't it, to have any kind of realistic credibility? And the vast majority of cars on the road already have cross-referenceable VINs visible through the windscreen - but far from all. So it doesn't actually add that much.

4) Make all existing cars fit the new plates which include VIN.

ALL 35 million of them? And all trailers? In what timescale? How do you propose to deal with historic vehicles? Are you suggesting that, say, the entire pre-1904 Brighton Run entry list should have post-2001-typeface plates with the chassis number on them? How do you propose to deal with historic vehicle where the chassis number isn't even necessarily unique between manufacturers? What about all the vehicles where the chassis number isn't in the modern VIN format, which was only introduced in the mid '80s?

Anyway, aren't you forgetting one small and rather important detail...? The way in which all the current "show-plate" manufacturers get around the manufacturing ban?

They make them - legally - outside the UK, and import them.
Are you going to make import illegal, too? How do you plan to enforce that?

Remember, all we're talking about here is a slab of plastic with a laser-printed backing sticker. It's hardly rocket science to manufacture on the black market, is it?

AdrianC

Deleted_User wrote: »

Stop allowing the manufacturer of "show plates" that appear to be "legal plates" as per all the dodgy eBay plate sellers.

Has been for eight years.

Plate manufacturers should be required to scan the V5 document and it along with the document ref should be checked via an online database at DVLA before the machine is allowed to print the plates off.

Proof of entitlement and proof of ID have been required to be logged for the last fifteen years.