I was having a chat with my friend who is a police officer and they were telling me that there is going to be more enforcement towards incorrectly displayed number plates. The official display of the new number plates should read letter letter number number space letter letter letter.
The police can give up to a 1k fine AND seize the number plate (more likely if it is a private plate/cherished plate).
So anyone who has played around with their number plate, be warned...

My old bosses son had a set of plates on his car which read IAN D [1 AND ], I told him he would get done but the cocky b r was adamant so bet him a fiver he would get pulled before I next went into the office, visited once a month, sure enough when I went in there was a fiver on my desk, wish I'd made it fifty, despite the fact that he had a set of correctly spaced plates in the boot he still got done. Gone, 2007 TD4 SE Auto Baltic blue, clear side repeaters, full sized alloy spare.

English by birth..... Yorkshire by the grace of God.

Interesting that this has come around again but I would not lose too much sleep over it, the number plate will only be withdrawn if it is altered to be "offensive" * and there is no way you will be fined £1000 if you just change the spacing, what you will get if you are very very unlucky is a "producer" to take the car to an MOT station within 14 days and a £30 fixed penalty. I have used a 20% undersized rear plate on my bikes for the last 12 years and there is more chance of Kylie calling for a date than me being stopped. However you do have to change the plate before an MOT. Again I have run a 5 digit private plate with no spacing on our car for the last 20 years.

what will get you stopped is non standard fonts, abusive personal meassages where the supplier logo should be, stupidly silly small plates and letters stretched to be numbers or altered with fixing screws to read something else

* and I mean very offensive, i.e racial hatred, Steve Parrish the BBC commentator was the owner of the famous PEN 15 plate for years and that is not considered offensive. 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

I think part of this is that some badly done plates can screw with Mr Plod's ANPR cameras and they get p*ssy about that. Its not just the spacing, it is also the background (honeycombing, logos etc.).

I have a logo on the bottom of my plate where the dealer's name normally goes. If Plod doesn't like it I will set up a garage business under the name of my logo!  John
07 HSE Narvick Black
Land Rover Series One
Triumph Rocket 111 (sadly gone!)

When I was mot testing, numer plate swapping was common place. In fact I had one client with a fleet or Merc,s and he used to swap the plate over for the MOT test and swap back again to the one with the incoorect spacing before he had left the car park. I used to photograph the cars whilst in for test so I had the evidence that when I had carried out the test the correct plates were fitterd. My patience paid off one day when a customer turned up wanting mt to sign a form to say he had changed the plates, I refused and sent photo,s to the local licencing authority. Eventually his plates were withdrawn. So they should be when they don't comply and the law is flouted

Now if your smart you get a legal plate like mine B3 DOG. I had 3 dogs at the time, and own Boarding kennels.

Realspeed (bazza) Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

If you have to change the plate so that people know what its supposed to say only says to me that you cannot afford to pay for decent private plates and it usually looks stupid and no, I cannot afford decent plates either

Ghyllie oo! Shiney!
____________________________________________
55 Nissan Navara SE Black - My Toy.
08 Freelander 2 XS Santorini Black - Her Majesty's Toy.

Moot point at the moment, I can't put our plate on the Freelander for another 5 months, (unless the stolen Defender gets recovered of course), But I'm going to order the plates anyway as I need a new plate for young James' Suzuki and I might as well just pay one lot of postage

for those of you who are unconcerned about the legality of your plates I recommend Rushden Graphics as great supplier of " Show Plates" 2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

A screw here to make a O look like a C, A P to look like an F, it goes on and on. Then there's a hit and run,you get the plate, pass it on and no match. The proper plates are put back on the car..... It speaks for itself, this is why we have number plates, so when these things happen we can find the culprits and quick!

how can you miss represent these( bo11ock ) your on a none winner if these exists  rainy-city
xs

Last edited by dunroof on 14th Feb 2013 7:38 pm. Edited 1 time in total

dunroof wrote:

, although they can report it to the DVLA, that agency won't take any action like revoking the number unless there are repeat offences so as to draw the conclusion they owner couldn't give a toss. So basically I wouldn't worry unduly!

'cos if they did start withdrawing numbers wholesale they would be shooting themselves in the foot, as they are the people who started all this nonsense when they realised that they could sell something that they had previously given away  2009 GS Auto Zermatt Silver - Sold June 21 after 10 years of ownership

2016 Subaru Outback SE 2.0 diesel SE Premium Lineartronic Sold 2024 after 8 years and 80k miles . Best Car I ever owned !

2023 Toyota Hilux invincible X 2.8 Auto .

Last edited by dunroof on 14th Feb 2013 7:36 pm. Edited 1 time in total

dunroof wrote:

Very true! It would be easier getting a night out with Angelina Jollie than getting your number withdrawn! Of course it doesn't preclude a vindictive Traffic Cop from taking out a personal vendetta against some Herbert, oh gosh Plods like that don't exist do they?

Obviously jealous of the Harley