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

AndyMc.....

Nilrem wrote: »

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,

I thought it was a vehicle excise offence.

davidwood681

On a side note, if you have to go into detail explaining what your private reg means, it's usually a rubbish set of characters

prowla

treboeth wrote: »

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

Well, that's an angle I haven't heard before!
Maybe the ANPR systems are in need of an upgrade (AI is all the rage this year!).

[Deleted User]

prowla wrote: »

Well, that's an angle I haven't heard before!
Maybe the ANPR systems are in need of an upgrade (AI is all the rage this year!).

If you actually sit in a police car and watch the ANPR it tries to identify quite a few things as a number plate(archways, street furniture etc).
The ANPR system is unlikely to be cutting edge technology as the money is just not there for it.

As mentioned above why give the police a reason to stop you anyway, they have better things to be doing and so do most people(unless they want something to complain about)

AndyMc.....

treboeth wrote: »

If you actually sit in a police car and watch the ANPR it tries to identify quite a few things as a number plate(archways, street furniture etc).
The ANPR system is unlikely to be cutting edge technology as the money is just not there for it.

As mentioned above why give the police a reason to stop you anyway, they have better things to be doing and so do most people(unless they want something to complain about)

But you’re unlikely to see it try and read more than one thing unless it’s moving. Not everyone gets a one way trip in the back.

Car_54

treboeth wrote: »

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

On the other hand, vanity plates are (usually) more memorable, and thus to be avoided by the crims. Apart from the exceptionally stupid ones, like this guy https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6238223/Bank-robber-caught-out-by-personalised-BMW-number-plate.html

[Deleted User]

Car_54 wrote: »

On the other hand, vanity plates are (usually) more memorable, and thus to be avoided by the crims. Apart from the exceptionally stupid ones, like this guy https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6238223/Bank-robber-caught-out-by-personalised-BMW-number-plate.html

True

What kind of a dumbass uses his own vehicle with a private plate to set up a robbery

I know the answer is James Snell :rotfl:

NBLondon

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

Do the police even care if the spacing is wrong but the characters are what they're supposed to be? I would have thought they'd have a bigger issue with people trying to change the appearance of characters with a black fixture for example trying to make a c into an e

I agree. Spacing is one thing - making a character appear to be a different one is another.

treboeth wrote: »

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

So it could be argued that when the owner of BE 17 END tries to make it look like BE 11 END by using an odd font - they are deliberately setting out to avoid ANPR detection and mis-direct any NIPs and so on to the Registered Keeper of the latter vehicle. So that's more than vanity - that's deception.

davidwood681 wrote: »

On a side note, if you have to go into detail explaining what your private reg means, it's usually a rubbish set of characters

Yep - either it means something to those who know you or it means something related to the car. If it's not obvious - why bother. {Or as James May said "If you want me to know your name is Terry - just write Terry's Car on the bootlid -it's cheaper"}

I once knew X 121 JOX which was displayed as X 121 JO X - Owner was called Joanne. Harmless.

On one commute I often found myself behind B 15 UEX which was displayed as B1 5UE X. Not sure if it was a case of couldn't afford something 1 SUE or wanted to celebrate her sexuality publicly....

z1a

Recently noticed a lot of rear plates that are almost black. Surely there is a limit as to how dark the yellow can be.

Johno100

Well if it is good enough for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex....