Are 3D Carbon Domed Registration Plates legal?

[147GTA]

Can anyone help please?

I was out taking the wife shopping when I got pulled over by Essex's finest in their Mitsubishi Evo X for the usual checks, no problem I thought as I've got nothing to hide and the car is completely legal and insured, taxed etc. The officer was polite and took my details, went back to his car and then came back to tell me he's going to give me a ticket for my illegal plates. He claimed the 3D carbon letters on my reg. plates are not legal and so he gave me a £60 fine for them, warned me about losing the private plate and being issued with a Q plate by the DVLA next time and then sent me on my way. As the wife was in the car I remained polite and just nodded and accepted what he had to say, even though I was fuming inside.

Now the plates were purchased from a company who claim they are perfectly legal, so who is right? There's the usual BS mark and there's no dodgy slogan or logo so the only issue was the actual lettering. I've been through three MOTs and have been pulled over several times over the years by the police and the the plates have never been an issue. The officer mentioned that only the flat single font that could be seen on cars going past is allowed, but I know Halfords sell carbon fibre and other styles of lettering for their plates so he's wrong on that one.

Just in case anyone is wondering, here's what the plates look like:

[neiljohnson]

Recent special notice from vosa states they are legal as long as bsau number & postcode of supplying agent are on there, id be inclined to argue this point but it can be a lot of hassle for the sake of £60.

[eldar]

No they aren't. Lots of regulation around plates, principally due to the fear that someone may fool a camera.

That your plates are perfectly legible to person or camera is neither here nor there, the bottom inspectors* have to justify their £40k from the public purse. Smile, pay up and get legal plates.

• The 1.1 million additional people employed and paid by you since 1997 to enforce the myriad laws brought in since then.

[OnTheOverrun]

The rules say your plates must be black characters on either a yellow or white background. The plates in the picture appear to have black and grey striped characters on a yellow or white background. Perhaps that is why?

[E31Shrew]

OnTheOverrun said:

The rules say your plates must be black characters on either a yellow or white background. The plates in the picture appear to have black and grey striped characters on a yellow or white background. Perhaps that is why?

3D variation is legal

[sy534534]

OnTheOverrun said:

The rules say your plates must be black characters on either a yellow or white background. The plates in the picture appear to have black and grey striped characters on a yellow or white background. Perhaps that is why?

I think this may be the answer. A couple of years ago i was fined £30 for an illegal plate ( fair cop, size issue on an import ), it was commented at the time that the carbon fibre look i had for the lettering was also illegal.

[Puff the magic..]

You have characters with a pattern on and that isn't allowed. See:

"Replacing your number plate
When replacing your number plate you should make sure that the correct material has been used to manufacture the plate. It should be made from a reflective material. Front number plates must display black characters on a white background and rear number plate must display black characters on a yellow background.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is not aware of any self-adhesive number plates that meet the British Standard requirements.
Characters on a number plate can be 3D, providing they meet all the other requirements, but honeycomb or other background patterns are not allowed.
Also, the characters on a number plate need to be a standard height and width.
Your number plate should show the correct:
character height - 79 millimetres
character width - 50 millimetres (except the figure 1 or letter I)
character stroke - 14 millimetres
space between characters - 11 millimetres
space between groups - 33 millimetres
top, bottom and side margins - minimum 11 millimetres
space between vertical lines - 19 millimetres"

ref: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/PersonalisedR...

[147GTA]

If carbon fibre lettering is illegal, why are Halfords selling them, flat carbon fibre lettering that is, to the public on 'road legal' plates? Surely selling dodgy plates as legal ones would see them losing there license to print plates fairly quickly and possibly receiving a large fine? I don't see a large company taking a risk like that unless they were sure.

[OnTheOverrun]

E31Shrew said:

OnTheOverrun said:

The rules say your plates must be black characters on either a yellow or white background. The plates in the picture appear to have black and grey striped characters on a yellow or white background. Perhaps that is why?

3D variation is legal

I'm not refering to 3d variation - I'm refering to the grey stripes on the black letters.

[OnTheOverrun]

147GTA said:

If carbon fibre lettering is illegal, why are Halfords selling them, flat carbon fibre lettering that is, to the public on 'road legal' plates? Surely selling dodgy plates as legal ones would see them losing there license to print plates fairly quickly and possibly receiving a large fine? I don't see a large company taking a risk like that unless they were sure.

I haven't seen the Halfords ones, do you have a link?

[Puff the magic..]

147GTA said:

If carbon fibre lettering is illegal, why are Halfords selling them, flat carbon fibre lettering that is, to the public on 'road legal' plates? Surely selling dodgy plates as legal ones would see them losing there license to print plates fairly quickly and possibly receiving a large fine? I don't see a large company taking a risk like that unless they were sure.

Perhaps the law only applies to displaying them on vehicles rather than supplying them.

[147GTA]

OnTheOverrun said:

147GTA said:

If carbon fibre lettering is illegal, why are Halfords selling them, flat carbon fibre lettering that is, to the public on 'road legal' plates? Surely selling dodgy plates as legal ones would see them losing there license to print plates fairly quickly and possibly receiving a large fine? I don't see a large company taking a risk like that unless they were sure.

I haven't seen the Halfords ones, do you have a link?

I can't seem to find anything online as they only sell their plates over the counter once you provide the necessary documents.

[147GTA]

Puff the magic.. said:

147GTA said:

If carbon fibre lettering is illegal, why are Halfords selling them, flat carbon fibre lettering that is, to the public on 'road legal' plates? Surely selling dodgy plates as legal ones would see them losing there license to print plates fairly quickly and possibly receiving a large fine? I don't see a large company taking a risk like that unless they were sure.

Perhaps the law only applies to displaying them on vehicles rather than supplying them.

They will fit them for you for a small charge as well....

[Puff the magic..]

147GTA said:

Puff the magic.. said:

147GTA said:

If carbon fibre lettering is illegal, why are Halfords selling them, flat carbon fibre lettering that is, to the public on 'road legal' plates? Surely selling dodgy plates as legal ones would see them losing there license to print plates fairly quickly and possibly receiving a large fine? I don't see a large company taking a risk like that unless they were sure.

Perhaps the law only applies to displaying them on vehicles rather than supplying them.

They will fit them for you for a small charge as well....

That still doesn't bring them into the "displaying" section of the law as that is down to the driver at the time.

[TOPTON]

Puff the magic.. said:

147GTA said:

Puff the magic.. said:

147GTA said:

If carbon fibre lettering is illegal, why are Halfords selling them, flat carbon fibre lettering that is, to the public on 'road legal' plates? Surely selling dodgy plates as legal ones would see them losing there license to print plates fairly quickly and possibly receiving a large fine? I don't see a large company taking a risk like that unless they were sure.

Perhaps the law only applies to displaying them on vehicles rather than supplying them.

They will fit them for you for a small charge as well....

That still doesn't bring them into the "displaying" section of the law as that is down to the driver at the time.

If Halfords are selling them and they are illegal, then the argument of 'its not them displaying them' isn't correct. They need to advise the customer that they are 'SHOW PLATES ONLY AND NOT FOR ROAD USE'. Surely they would not fit anything to a car that is illegal. They (Halfords) would be considered to know more than the average person about law and fitment, being the suppliers and anything they fit would be legally their responsibility.

[Mr2Mike]

Puff the magic.. said:

You have characters with a pattern on and that isn't allowed. See:

Characters on a number plate can be 3D, providing they meet all the other requirements, but honeycomb or other background patterns are not allowed.

In the OP's case the background is a plain yellow colour with no patterns on it, how does this rule apply?

[147GTA]

Mr2Mike said:

Puff the magic.. said:

You have characters with a pattern on and that isn't allowed. See:

Characters on a number plate can be 3D, providing they meet all the other requirements, but honeycomb or other background patterns are not allowed.

In the OP's case the background is a plain yellow colour with no patterns on it, how does this rule apply?

Yep, I too read the last part of that statement to mean that no background on the plate is allowed but it wasn't referring to the lettering.

Edited by 147GTA on Sunday 9th May 08:55

[Nickyboy]

Mr2Mike said:

Puff the magic.. said:

You have characters with a pattern on and that isn't allowed. See:

Characters on a number plate can be 3D, providing they meet all the other requirements, but honeycomb or other background patterns are not allowed.

In the OP's case the background is a plain yellow colour with no patterns on it, how does this rule apply?

Number plates can have 2 kinds of lettering, flat black and another style that is also flat but has a 3D look to it, i had them on my old car. They look slightly 3D at the right angle but to anyone else they look like normal flat lettering

[BonzoG]

The way I understand it all depends on your definition/application of "3D".

From what I can gleam from craigsplates and the like:

- The legal/acceptable "3D" refers just to a "3D Effect" (i.e. shaded) version of the standard Charles Wright font. (See right ->)








- Your plates don't have "3D Effect" letters - they have actual raised/domed letters. Yes, they're really 3-Dimensional but I think this might be where they fall foul of the law.


Giantic caveat in that I don't have a bloody clue if this is right or not as I can't be arsed looking anything up at this time in the morning after a nightshift, and wouldn't know where to look anyways . But I reckon that might be what's up. And this turns out to be right, then the law is really quite retarded.

[herewego]

I'd also be surprised if Halfords referred to them as carbon or carbon fibre. I'd expect them to say "carbon fibre look" or "imitation carbon fibre" or suchlike.