how do people get away with altering appearances of number plates?

LandyAndy

Isn't it one of those things for which you can be required to get a confirmation of rectification from an MoT testing station (at a cost to you)?

loskie

the chavs also love removing the front plate altogether and either sticking it on the dashboard or not having it at all.
Police here D&G seem to turn a blind eye, even had their attendance at a local "Street Kulture!" (!!!!!!?) event pictured in the local paper next to one of said cars saying how well the event was managed.

sevenhills

"You could be fined up to £1,000 and your car will fail its MOT test if you drive with incorrectly displayed number plates."

When it says £1,000 fine, I assume that means it will go to court, is is not a fixed penalty. There should be more offenses that are FPN.

prowla

In the great scheme of things, if people want to have vanity plates and change the spacing, then it's not going to hurt anybody.

(I think they look stupid, though.)

[Deleted User]

Prowla, vanity plates can be hard for ANPR to identify correctly, do you want criminals to have anonymity?

AndyMc.....

treboeth wrote: »

Prowla, vanity plates can be hard for ANPR to identify correctly, do you want criminals to have anonymity?

It’s too hard to compare them to the photo though.

Nasqueron

loskie wrote: »

the chavs also love removing the front plate altogether and either sticking it on the dashboard or not having it at all.
Police here D&G seem to turn a blind eye, even had their attendance at a local "Street Kulture!" (!!!!!!?) event pictured in the local paper next to one of said cars saying how well the event was managed.

It's done to beat front facing ANPR particularly for speeding down roads and they can always claim it "just fell off" hence difficult to prove. I used to go past one daily on my commute whose plate was in the front windscreen for many months but unless the police photographed it daily they'd have no proof

AdrianC

sevenhills wrote: »

"You could be fined up to £1,000 and your car will fail its MOT test if you drive with incorrectly displayed number plates."

When it says £1,000 fine, I assume that means it will go to court, is is not a fixed penalty. There should be more offenses that are FPN.

FPN is available. If it's refused, or if the police decide not to FPN (it's been done before, or the attitude test was massively failed) then it's court, with a poss max £1k fine.


Ultimately, the plate itself can be withdrawn by DVLA (with zero compensation if it's a "personal" plate, no matter how high the market value), and a new age-related one will be issued.

AndyMc.....

AdrianC wrote: »

FPN is available. If it's refused, or if the police decide not to FPN (it's been done before, or the attitude test was massively failed) then it's court, with a poss max £1k fine.


Ultimately, the plate itself can be withdrawn by DVLA (with zero compensation if it's a "personal" plate, no matter how high the market value), and a new age-related one will be issued.

Sadly now that’s not an option for the police at the roadside in some forces.

Nilrem

AdrianC wrote: »

FPN is available. If it's refused, or if the police decide not to FPN (it's been done before, or the attitude test was massively failed) then it's court, with a poss max £1k fine.


Ultimately, the plate itself can be withdrawn by DVLA (with zero compensation if it's a "personal" plate, no matter how high the market value), and a new age-related one will be issued.

Aye and for some reason the idiots that buy the plates then display them incorrectly whilst acting like twerps get upset when it happens.

The issue is that it requires police to spot it (not enough traffic police at all these days), and to know/remember/think to report it to the DVLA.
I've heard of it happening a few times, usually with repeat offenders who have failed the attitude test and keep being a nuisance with regards to their driving/modifications to the car that are otherwise not enough to cause it to be banned from the road or just fines.

I have heard of traffic officers who have caught someone doing something silly/illegal but not thinking they'd manage to get a prosecution for that offence (or not being 100% sure it would be successful) ending up going over an idiots car with a fine tooth comb for any other offences and reporting them for everything else including the plates.
More than once I've seen/heard officers mention how if they look hard enough they can usually find something if the driver is an utter twit, even if it's just making the driver clean the number plate (some people seem to accidentally "miss" cleaning it so it's barely readable even if the rest of the car is immaculate - IIRC it's a construction and use reg to have the plate readable).

The thing that always amuses me a bit, is the number of people that modify their plates to look "better" and thus attract attention, that are also doing other things wrong and probably shouldn't be doing anything to make their car more noticeable,