What crappy personalised plates have you seen recently?

[JonRB]

av185 said:

Better things to do with your time???

I doubt that going off your posting volume.....

Perhaps 273 posts per month is greater than your 127 posts per month, but I tend to post a lot in threads where you comment on things live (eg. F1 races, TV shows, and the like), and you tend to post a lot in a short amount of time as a result.

But, that little ad hominem dig aside, it doesn't really answer why you felt so strongly about that particular plate that you felt compelled to contact the police about it. Or, as I asked previously, do you do that for every illegally spaced plate in this thread?

[av185]

JonRB said:

av185 said:

Better things to do with your time???

I doubt that going off your posting volume.....

Perhaps 273 posts per month is greater than your 127 posts per month, but I tend to post a lot in threads where you comment on things live (eg. F1 races, TV shows, and the like), and you tend to post a lot in a short amount of time as a result.

But, that little ad hominem dig aside, it doesn't really answer why you felt so strongly about that particular plate that you felt compelled to contact the police about it. Or, as I asked previously, do you do that for every illegally spaced plate in this thread?

As I have already said.....read the thread for repetitive explanations......

Illegal spacing is bad enough.....

Illegal butchering of letters and or numbers is even worse....

But when the plate is altered to such an extent in an attempt to gain commercially by a 'professional' ethical and 'legal' company as is the case in point.....then that's just plain taking the pis

Butchering

[Pixelpeep7r]

av185 said:

JonRB said:

av185 said:

Better things to do with your time???

I doubt that going off your posting volume.....

Perhaps 273 posts per month is greater than your 127 posts per month, but I tend to post a lot in threads where you comment on things live (eg. F1 races, TV shows, and the like), and you tend to post a lot in a short amount of time as a result.

But, that little ad hominem dig aside, it doesn't really answer why you felt so strongly about that particular plate that you felt compelled to contact the police about it. Or, as I asked previously, do you do that for every illegally spaced plate in this thread?

As I have already said.....read the thread for repetitive explanations......

Illegal spacing is bad enough.....

Illegal butchering of letters and or numbers is even worse....

But when the plate is altered to such an extent in an attempt to gain commercially by a 'professional' ethical and 'legal' company as is the case in point.....then that's just plain taking the pis

Butchering

Seriously - you'd have more impact writing an angry letter to the head office than the police who would have no choice other than to file the report under S for Shredder.

Personally, and IMO, you would have been better off contacting the head office and explaining your feelings re how the plate on one of their franchise vans 'made you feel' with regard to their brand rather than contacting the police.

In the grand scheme of what the police have to work with funding wise i do think people contacting the police because something winds them up is a waste. If a life was in danger then maybe, but not with this.

[kmpowell]

Pixelpeep7r said:

In the grand scheme of what the police have to work with funding wise i do think people contacting the police because something winds them up is a waste. If a life was in danger then maybe, but not with this.

What if one of these said vehicles is being driven and hits somebody (perhaps a child(perhaps your child!)) in the road. Driver of said vehicle drives off without stopping (perhaps through panic, or another reason suchas guilt). The only witness to the crime sees the said vehicle but is unable to take down the registration plate correctly because the of an owner is far too wrapped up in his/her self importance and vain attitude towards life.

What then? It kind of makes your reasoning superfluous...

[Pixelpeep7r]

kmpowell said:

Pixelpeep7r said:

In the grand scheme of what the police have to work with funding wise i do think people contacting the police because something winds them up is a waste. If a life was in danger then maybe, but not with this.

What if one of these said vehicles is being driven and hits somebody (perhaps a child(perhaps your child!)) in the road. Driver of said vehicle drives off without stopping (perhaps through panic, or another reason suchas guilt). The only witness to the crime sees the said vehicle but is unable to take down the registration plate correctly because the of an owner is far too wrapped up in his/her self importance and vain attitude towards life.

What then? It kind of makes your reasoning superfluous...

Ok, lets use your example as you used mine.

Witness : 'Hello, yes is the police, i have just witnessed a silver van running over pixelpeeps child and the van didn't stop'

Police: 'did you get the registration plate'

Witness: 'Yes, it was C11 IPS'

Police: 'ok, well the letter i was not allowed in pre 2001 number plates so we will assume its an L'

Outcome : Van found, driver arrested.

or,

when they look up the van on PNC and they find no match they do a wildcard search based on different variations of the plate given, filter by silver VW vans

Outcome : Van found, driver arrested.

[JonRB]

Pixelpeep7r said:

Ok, lets use your example as you used mine.

Witness : 'Hello, yes is the police, i have just witnessed a silver van running over pixelpeeps child and the van didn't stop'

Police: 'did you get the registration plate'

Witness: 'Yes, it was C11 IPS'

Police: 'ok, well the letter i was not allowed in pre 2001 number plates so we will assume its an L'

Outcome : Van found, driver arrested.

or,

when they look up the van on PNC and they find no match they do a wildcard search based on different variations of the plate given, filter by silver VW vans

Outcome : Van found, driver arrested.

Quite. The thing about memorable plates is that they are, um, memorable - so a witness is far more likely to remember it.

So, as you say, a "silver van with a numberplate that looks like 'CHIPS'" is only going to have a limited number of permutations which any half-intelligent operator is going to be able to work though in much less time than it would take to find a "silver van that was on a C-plate".

[kmpowell]

Pixelpeep7r said:

kmpowell said:

Pixelpeep7r said:

In the grand scheme of what the police have to work with funding wise i do think people contacting the police because something winds them up is a waste. If a life was in danger then maybe, but not with this.

What if one of these said vehicles is being driven and hits somebody (perhaps a child(perhaps your child!)) in the road. Driver of said vehicle drives off without stopping (perhaps through panic, or another reason suchas guilt). The only witness to the crime sees the said vehicle but is unable to take down the registration plate correctly because the of an owner is far too wrapped up in his/her self importance and vain attitude towards life.

What then? It kind of makes your reasoning superfluous...

Ok, lets use your example as you used mine.

Witness : 'Hello, yes is the police, i have just witnessed a silver van running over pixelpeeps child and the van didn't stop'

Police: 'did you get the registration plate'

Witness: 'Yes, it was C11 IPS'

Police: 'ok, well the letter i was not allowed in pre 2001 number plates so we will assume its an L'

Outcome : Van found, driver arrested.

or,

when they look up the van on PNC and they find no match they do a wildcard search based on different variations of the plate given, filter by silver VW vans

Outcome : Van found, driver arrested.

You're missing a few fundamental details. The shortening of the L is not only the illegal thing happening. The two 1's have a fixing bolt in-between them and there's miss-spacing going on.

So let's say the only witness to the running over pixelpeeps child says the folowing:

Witness : 'Hello, yes is the police, i have just witnessed a silver van running over pixelpeeps child and the van didn't stop'

Police: 'did you get the registration plate'

Witness: 'Yes, it was CHIPS, or something like that, it was hard to make out'

...what then?

JonRB said:

Quite. The thing about memorable plates is that they are, um, memorable - so a witness is far more likely to remember it.

So, as you say, a "silver van with a numberplate that looks like 'CHIPS'" is only going to have a limited number of permutations which any half-intelligent operator is going to be able to work though in much less time than it would take to find a "silver van that was on a C-plate".

Absolute garbage! I can't believe you're sticking up for idiots like this, that is unless your Sag no longer resides on its original PNO prefix, but instead has one of the stty miss-spelt and miss-spaced S4G plats some owners seem intent on displaying because they think it looks good.

Edited by kmpowell on Monday 4th August 17:29

[JonRB]

kmpowell said:

Absolute garbage! I can't believe you're sticking up for idiots like this, that is unless your Sag no longer resides on its original PNO prefix, but instead has one of the stty miss-spelt and miss-spaced S4G plats some owners seem intent on displaying because they think it looks good.

I'm not sticking up for anyone, and you're making some pretty wild and borderline libellous speculations there chap.

I'm merely pointing out that a memorable plate is memorable. A witness is far more likely to remember a memorable plate than an anonymous.

Don't take that to mean I endorse illegal spacing, especially when bolts and oddly shaped letters are used, but let's not be under any illusion that the reason that plates have to be bang on correctly spaced and the like is because ANPR isn't clever enough to recognise strange spacing and fonts.

Edit: For the avoidance of doubt, I'm certainly not endorsing shortening an L to look like an I or putting a bolt to make 11 look like H. I was commenting more generally.

Edited by JonRB on Monday 4th August 17:44

[B'stard Child]

JonRB said:

Don't take that to mean I endorse illegal spacing, especially when bolts and oddly shaped letters are used, but let's not be under any illusion that the reason that plates have to be bang on correctly spaced and the like is because ANPR isn't clever enough to recognise strange spacing and fonts.

Maybe not bolts added or butchered letters but ANPR does recognise plates with all manner of spacing permutations - despite what the authorities would claim.

Think about what it has to cope with already in terms of plate variation and you'll realise it has to cope with spacing irregularities.

Just pointing that out not wanting to join in to the rest of the arguement

[Jaguar steve]

You could spend the rest of eternity discussing whether a illegal plate is more or less memorable or easier or more difficult to read. That's just a matter of individual perception and opinion and if it came to it something any defence barrister worth his three grand a day would put through the shredder in court.

What's clearly a matter of fact 'tho is an illegal plate is err, well illegal, and anybody who chooses to display one for whatever reason is deliberately and very publicly sticking two fingers up at the law.

It's the fkuk the law attitude behind the illegal plate that's the real issue IMO and Plod would do well to give any Chavplater they have their attention drawn too a tug, serve a FPN for the plate and then start asking a few or maybe a lot more questions.

[Steffan]

Jaguar steve said:

You could spend the rest of eternity discussing whether a illegal plate is more or less memorable or easier or more difficult to read. That's just a matter of individual perception and opinion and if it came to it something any defence barrister worth his three grand a day would put through the shredder in court.

What's clearly a matter of fact 'tho is an illegal plate is err, well illegal, and anybody who chooses to display one for whatever reason is deliberately and very publicly sticking two fingers up at the law.

It's the fkuk the law attitude behind the illegal plate that's the real issue IMO and Plod would do well to give any Chavplater they have their attention drawn too a tug, serve a FPN for the plate and then start asking a few or maybe a lot more questions.

I must agree. These plates are illegal and should be stopped. The inadequacy of the administration of the law in ending such illegal practices is clearly allowing nonsense plates to proliferate. They are all illegal and however you dress such activities up they are illegal attempts to evade the law. Which part of such illegal attempts do the proagonists of illegally altered plates deny are not unlawful? There are none and the practice should be stopped.

Ridiculously noisy exhausts, dangerously excessively bright headlamps and nonsense additional illegal lamps on motor vehicles, and unlawful non declaration of major alterations to vehicles and inconsiderate and dangerous illegal parking in a grossly unreasonable way are all examples of other illegal activities which cause other road users dangers and nuisance. In a small island with a big population and a great many cars there have to be effective rules of the road which enable reasonable use of the road to be as safe as possible. The Chav lovers of these plates who deliberately break the law, by choice, daily, clearly regard themselves as better than everybody else who at least attempt to comply with the laws by choice, daily. They are in fact deliberate selfish law breakers. They should be prosecuted regularly as such.

[JonRB]

Jaguar steve said:

You could spend the rest of eternity discussing whether a illegal plate is more or less memorable or easier or more difficult to read. That's just a matter of individual perception and opinion and if it came to it something any defence barrister worth his three grand a day would put through the shredder in court.

What's clearly a matter of fact 'tho is an illegal plate is err, well illegal, and anybody who chooses to display one for whatever reason is deliberately and very publicly sticking two fingers up at the law.

Oh, absolutely. If something is illegal then obviously it shoudln't be done. Although history is littered with stupid laws that make little sense. And, likewise, there are some law that are regularly broken - speeding, for example.

All I was saying, and to be honest I'm really not sure it's worth arguing it any more, is that (at the risk of stating the obvious) something that is memorable (for whatever reason) is more likely to be remembered by a witness than something forgettable.

People seem to be extrapolating that statement into something that it is not.

B'stard Child said:

Maybe not bolts added or butchered letters but ANPR does recognise plates with all manner of spacing permutations - despite what the authorities would claim.

Fair enough.

[JonRB]

Steffan said:

I must agree. These plates are illegal and should be stopped. The inadequacy of the administration of the law in ending such illegal practices is clearly allowing nonsense plates to proliferate. They are all illegal and however you dress such activities up they are illegal attempts to evade the law. Which part of such illegal attempts do the proagonists of illegally altered plates deny are not unlawful? There are none and the practice should be stopped.

Ridiculously noisy exhausts, dangerously excessively bright headlamps and nonsense additional illegal lamps on motor vehicles, and unlawful non declaration of major alterations to vehicles and inconsiderate and dangerous illegal parking in a grossly unreasonable way are all examples of other illegal activities which cause other road users dangers and nuisance. In a small island with a big population and a great many cars there have to be effective rules of the road which enable reasonable use of the road to be as safe as possible. The Chav lovers of these plates who deliberately break the law, by choice, daily, clearly regard themselves as better than everybody else who at least attempt to comply with the laws by choice, daily. They are in fact deliberate selfish law breakers. They should be prosecuted regularly as such.

Blimey. You make it sound worse than tax evasion.

[V8 Animal]

I think this is quite good.

[av185]

JonRB said:

Steffan said:

I must agree. These plates are illegal and should be stopped. The inadequacy of the administration of the law in ending such illegal practices is clearly allowing nonsense plates to proliferate. They are all illegal and however you dress such activities up they are illegal attempts to evade the law. Which part of such illegal attempts do the proagonists of illegally altered plates deny are not unlawful? There are none and the practice should be stopped.

Ridiculously noisy exhausts, dangerously excessively bright headlamps and nonsense additional illegal lamps on motor vehicles, and unlawful non declaration of major alterations to vehicles and inconsiderate and dangerous illegal parking in a grossly unreasonable way are all examples of other illegal activities which cause other road users dangers and nuisance. In a small island with a big population and a great many cars there have to be effective rules of the road which enable reasonable use of the road to be as safe as possible. The Chav lovers of these plates who deliberately break the law, by choice, daily, clearly regard themselves as better than everybody else who at least attempt to comply with the laws by choice, daily. They are in fact deliberate selfish law breakers. They should be prosecuted regularly as such.

Blimey. You make it sound worse than tax evasion.

Illegal numberplates are fraudulent....as is tax evasion.

QED

[Shnozz]

An amusing twist this thread has taken. Genuinely laughing at the jobsworths who are reporting mis-spaced plates to the police. Truly brilliant. And no, I haven't got a mis-spaced plate. I just wouldn't snitch a fellow motorist for making his/her plate more memorable than a generic plate that I wouldn't remember more than 5 seconds at the scene of an accident. I would also be less likely to recognise a vehicle carrying a standard plate should I need to do so at a later date.

Not my cup of tea, but I can't understand how someone buggering around with their number plate offends some people to the point they would call the police and report the illegality. Same as if someone were speeding. And removing the illegality of it, I don't care much for Kia's. Or ginger folk. But I don't get so outraged by there presence that I feel the need to report it.

[berlintaxi]

Shnozz said:

An amusing twist this thread has taken. Genuinely laughing at the jobsworths who are reporting mis-spaced plates to the police. Truly brilliant. And no, I haven't got a mis-spaced plate. I just wouldn't snitch a fellow motorist for making his/her plate more memorable than a generic plate that I wouldn't remember more than 5 seconds at the scene of an accident. I would also be less likely to recognise a vehicle carrying a standard plate should I need to do so at a later date.

Not my cup of tea, but I can't understand how someone buggering around with their number plate offends some people to the point they would call the police and report the illegality. Same as if someone were speeding. And removing the illegality of it, I don't care much for Kia's. Or ginger folk. But I don't get so outraged by there presence that I feel the need to report it.

Careful now, av185 will be scouring your profile and previous posts to find some way to personally attack/insult you, that's when he isn't bothering the local constabulary.

[Jaguar steve]

Steffan said:

Jaguar steve said:

You could spend the rest of eternity discussing whether a illegal plate is more or less memorable or easier or more difficult to read. That's just a matter of individual perception and opinion and if it came to it something any defence barrister worth his three grand a day would put through the shredder in court.

What's clearly a matter of fact 'tho is an illegal plate is err, well illegal, and anybody who chooses to display one for whatever reason is deliberately and very publicly sticking two fingers up at the law.

It's the fkuk the law attitude behind the illegal plate that's the real issue IMO and Plod would do well to give any Chavplater they have their attention drawn too a tug, serve a FPN for the plate and then start asking a few or maybe a lot more questions.

I must agree. These plates are illegal and should be stopped. The inadequacy of the administration of the law in ending such illegal practices is clearly allowing nonsense plates to proliferate. They are all illegal and however you dress such activities up they are illegal attempts to evade the law. Which part of such illegal attempts do the proagonists of illegally altered plates deny are not unlawful? There are none and the practice should be stopped.

Ridiculously noisy exhausts, dangerously excessively bright headlamps and nonsense additional illegal lamps on motor vehicles, and unlawful non declaration of major alterations to vehicles and inconsiderate and dangerous illegal parking in a grossly unreasonable way are all examples of other illegal activities which cause other road users dangers and nuisance. In a small island with a big population and a great many cars there have to be effective rules of the road which enable reasonable use of the road to be as safe as possible. The Chav lovers of these plates who deliberately break the law, by choice, daily, clearly regard themselves as better than everybody else who at least attempt to comply with the laws by choice, daily. They are in fact deliberate selfish law breakers. They should be prosecuted regularly as such.

Much as it'd be nice to see - illegal plates probably outnumber genuine Real Good ones by a ratio of at least ten to fifteen to one here in the Essex Badlands - it's never going to happen though.

All a massive clampdown on illegally formatted numberplates would actually achieve is a significant loss of revenue to the government and even greater loss of respect to the BiB tasked with issuing FPNs to the offenders.

A clampdown would no doubt kick off an outburst of sanctimonious indignation as well. Ain't yew got nuffink betta to do offisaah? Where wos yew when me bleedin lawnmower got nicked ay? Kost me a bleedin fawchune that plate did. Anywayz oo pays your faaakin wages yew faaakin kaaant? and so on - amongst those Chavs who have bought a registration with the specific intention of displaying it illegally.

I can see the Persecution Of Innocent Motorists headlines in the Daily Wail already...

Clamping down would do absolutely nothing to change the real underlying problem which is the triumph of personal vanity over respect for the law an illegal plate represents.

[JonRB]

Jaguar steve said:

Clamping down would do absolutely nothing to change the real underlying problem which is the triumph of personal vanity over respect for the law an illegal plate represents.

I think both sides of the argument are equally silly, to be honest. Adopt the American system of having almost anything allowable and sit back and rake in the revenue. After all, the only thing a numberplate needs to be is a unique identifier for the vehicle so that a) witnesses can report it to the authorities and b) ANPR / Police can look it up on a database.

Of course, the Motor Industry would lobby hard against that because they want a year identifier so the "keeping up with the Joneses" brigade will keep updating their car. In fact, they lobbied hard to get the whole ridiculous 51...59, 60...69 identifier to make it a twice-yearly change, when a simple two digit year identifier would have lasted twice as long and made total sense.

But this is probably a digression.

[Jaguar steve]

JonRB said:

Jaguar steve said:

Clamping down would do absolutely nothing to change the real underlying problem which is the triumph of personal vanity over respect for the law an illegal plate represents.

I think both sides of the argument are equally silly, to be honest. Adopt the American system of having almost anything allowable and sit back and rake in the revenue. After all, the only thing a numberplate needs to be is a unique identifier for the vehicle so that a) witnesses can report it to the authorities and b) ANPR / Police can look it up on a database.

Of course, the Motor Industry would lobby hard against that because they want a twice-yearly increment of a year identifier so the "keeping up with the Joneses" brigade will keep updating their car. In fact, they lobbied hard to get the whole ridiculous 51...59, 60...69 identifier when a simple two digit year identifier would have lasted twice as long and made total sense.

But this is probably a digression.

No, probably not far off the truth actually. The desire for both a distinctive registration and a brand new aspirational branded car to impress the neighbours with are driven by personal vanity. That's a powerful but fragile force that's cultivated and nurtured by the media and no doubt already carefully optimised for maximum revenue by both car manufactures and the DVLA.

Nobody actually needs a brand new car or a distinctive registration number. The fact that so many sheeple are prepared to financially cripple themselves to obtain either or sometimes both is proof of just how powerful this force is.