Illegal number plates could be fined

Ben Bentley investigates the growing trend for vanity car registration plates and finds out that not only could many be illegal, some could leave you £1,000 out of pocket:

Twit plates, chav plates, "dumber-plates". Call these customised vehicle registration plates what you wish - either way they are a vanity cause that could well be illegal.

Look around. Some plates have characters that look more like a dyslexic text message; others, whose digits have been shifted or tampered with possibly to resemble the driver's nickname, are wholly illegible.

The trend towards customising vehicle registration plates would appear to be growing. Or is it that once you've seen one you start seeing them everywhere?

Latest figures for the Telford & Wrekin area alone show that in the six-month period from July to December last year, 40 fixed penalty notices were issued to motorists driving a vehicle with a registration mark that failed to conform with regulations.

For the same period in the Shropshire area, 44 fixed penalty notices were issued.

Wandering around a town centre car park in Telford, Sergeant Pete Simmonds, who has worked in traffic law and enforcement for 12 years, quickly spies several cars whose plates are questionable - some whose letters are dubiously spaced or which have deteriorated; screws placed on the plate that have changed how the letters read.

There are several "borderline" cases whose letters are not standard sized; one has letters in italics.

He says: "There are guidelines that have to be followed. For new plates they should be made to standards that are stated by the law and are available from nominated outlets.

"One problem is ANPR, which is used by all police forces and commercial businesses such as petrol stations — an ANPR device reads the plate and if that car goes without paying it records that this car has been in, and next time the car comes in the petrol pump won't work.

"The plates can confuse the ANPR device - it can photograph them but it can't read them properly."

Most drivers, says Pete, probably don't even realise they are breaking the law. A gentle word of warning is normally all that is needed.

"Some realise they are illegal but are prepared to take the chance," says Pete. "If an officer sees that vehicle and there's an opportunity to stop it, first and foremost we will offer words of advice."

A vehicle defect registration form can be issued, giving the driver 14 days to rectify the modification and get it approved at an MoT testing station.

"But if they don't get it done they can be prosecuted," adds Pete, who says he hasn't seen a rise in people customising car plates.

"Perhaps enforcement is not as robust as it could be, but it's not to say that they aren't quite clearly committing an offence."

And it's no laughing matter. The police can issue fixed penalty fines for illegally displayed number plates and offenders could face a maximum fine of £1,000 and in some cases the number plate may be withdrawn.

Vehicles with illegally displayed number plates may fail the MoT test.

Now a website has even been set up as part of a campaign to outlaw incorrectly displayed registration numbers. It's called Stop Illegal Number Plates and, as a little in-joke, its letters are twisted round to resemble the type of illegible plate it is attempting to outlaw.

On its homepage is mock parking ticket template bearing the words "This number plate is illegal" and people are being encouraged to print them off and slap them on the windscreens of cars displaying customised plates as a way of outing twit-platers.

The site adopts a zero-tolerance approach towards culprits, but it's mainly aimed at injuring them by taking the mick. To this end the site has even produced a game for twit-plate spotters with a scoring system to measure plates against each other.

In the UK the car numberplate format consists of two letters, two numbers, a space and three further letters. Front number plates must display black characters on a white background and rear number plate must display black characters on a yellow background.

Also, the characters on a car number plate need to be a standard height and width. For those who have access to a tape measure, characters should be 79mm and 50mm wide, with the exception of the figure 1 or the letter l.

Thickness, space between characters and digit groups is also regulated.

Lizzie Haynes, of Innovation Bodyworx in Priorslee, is an authorised registration plate maker. Since a recent crackdown, she says companies have to stick to strict manufacturing guidelines, but she still sees examples of dodgy plates obtained from other sources.

Says Lizzie: "It's funny what people try get away with. With private registration plates they want it to look like their name and a big gap between the digits spoils the effect so they might squeeze them together.

"People don't realise - there are companies on the internet that sell them as show plates but some people try to get away with them on the roads."

Pete Simmonds says the custom car scene is "alive and well" in Shropshire. He regularly attends meetings of local clubs but says most are responsible for their vehicles and there are few problems with plates and other customisations.

Some may not even know they are committing an offence.

It's a grey area, Pete admits. And there are others - blacked-out front windows, lowered suspensions, modified headlights and sporty wheels and tyres that might affect the performance of the car.

He adds: "Maybe there are some younger car enthusiasts that are mimicking things they have seen on off-road vehicles, but these vehicles are not meant for the road. And in doing so they don't realise they are potentially breaking the law.

"For older people it might be vanity and they might think 'If I get fined, I get fined'."