Busted with Illegal plate

[HantsRat]

pheasant said:

Ok the man was a prat and failed the attitude test, but wouldn't your time have been better spent pulling a tailgater or MLH ??

Correct. If the driver didn't have an illegal plate he wouldn't have been pulled and I could have been dealing with another offence. Who knows?

[Pothole]

bad company said:

Yep, an op seeking help & advice gets flamed possibly due to jealousy.
L

What help and advice was he seeking? Clearly, as he's been done for the first time in 15 years, something has changed. He's asked what. Nobody knows. He's been offered lots of advice, or lots of reiterations of the same advice: "If you don't want to get fined, don't illegally space the characters on your plate. " He's been given an added bonus: most people won't even notice and a large percentage of those who do will think he's a nobber.

[Shnozz]

PorkInsider said:

Vaud said:

xjay1337 said:

I am a logical person and if the font is correct why does it matter if it says "M50 MYG" or "M5 0MY G" ?
As long as it can be read by the cameras then what's the issue?

Because it isn't just about cameras. It's also about people. People expect patterns, or rather find it easier tor remember patterns. They are more likely to remember a number plate if it follows the expected pattern of letters and numbers in the correct spacing and sizing. The human factor.

Exactly this.

I remember when the current format AB12 ABC was introduced I saw something on TV with some boffin explaining exactly why that format was chosen and how they tested human ability to read and recall different formats of test plates in different scenarios.

So many times people with illegal plates go back to the ‘ANPR can read it’ argument, completely ignoring that people also need to be able to read and recall plates, too.

The irony being that those who tend to mis-space a plate do so to make it more distinguishable and more stand out than someone covertly wishing to go under the radar. I can imagine many more witnesses remembering a robber who drove off with TH13VES than one who has an unbodged regular (probably cloned) plate.

Not that I advocate dicked with plates mind just cos I think they look a bit crap.

[PorkInsider]

Pothole said:

bad company said:

Yep, an op seeking help & advice gets flamed possibly due to jealousy.
L

What help and advice was he seeking? Clearly, as he's been done for the first time in 15 years, something has changed. He's asked what. Nobody knows. He's been offered lots of advice, or lots of reiterations of the same advice: "If you don't want to get fined, don't illegally space the characters on your plate. " He's been given an added bonus: most people won't even notice and a large percentage of those who do will think he's a nobber.

And on top of all of the above, where does the ‘jealousy’ bit come from?

For £20 any of us could have illegal plates made. It’s hardly something to be jealous of.

[av185]

Shnozz said:

Not that I advocate dicked with plates

[Pothole]

PorkInsider said:

Pothole said:

bad company said:

Yep, an op seeking help & advice gets flamed possibly due to jealousy.
L

What help and advice was he seeking? Clearly, as he's been done for the first time in 15 years, something has changed. He's asked what. Nobody knows. He's been offered lots of advice, or lots of reiterations of the same advice: "If you don't want to get fined, don't illegally space the characters on your plate. " He's been given an added bonus: most people won't even notice and a large percentage of those who do will think he's a nobber.

And on top of all of the above, where does the ‘jealousy’ bit come from?

For £20 any of us could have illegal plates made. It’s hardly something to be jealous of.

Indeed. I ignored the whole jealous accusation because it was so utterly ridiculous!

[ciege]

PorkInsider said:

Brooking10 said:

PorkInsider said:

Such a shame it’s only a £100 fine.

Should be a simple case of seizing and crushing any vehicle with a chav plate.

Yep

That seems entirely proportionate and to be the product of wholly rational thought

Thank you.

I'm with you son!

[ciege]

Pothole said:

PorkInsider said:

Pothole said:

bad company said:

Yep, an op seeking help & advice gets flamed possibly due to jealousy.
L

What help and advice was he seeking? Clearly, as he's been done for the first time in 15 years, something has changed. He's asked what. Nobody knows. He's been offered lots of advice, or lots of reiterations of the same advice: "If you don't want to get fined, don't illegally space the characters on your plate. " He's been given an added bonus: most people won't even notice and a large percentage of those who do will think he's a nobber.

And on top of all of the above, where does the ‘jealousy’ bit come from?

For £20 any of us could have illegal plates made. It’s hardly something to be jealous of.

Indeed. I ignored the whole jealous accusation because it was so utterly ridiculous!

We all did, says more about the accuser than the accused.

I can think of better ways of spending £20 to make the car illegal and look like a chav, honestly I can!

[PixelpeepS3]

is that how it was?

[Pothole]

ciege said:

We all did, says more about the accuser than the accused.

I can think of better ways of spending £20 to make the car illegal and look like a chav, honestly I can!

you can get loads of Pistonheads stickers for that!

[divetheworld]

HantsRat said:

pheasant said:

Ok the man was a prat and failed the attitude test, but wouldn't your time have been better spent pulling a tailgater or MLH ??

Correct. If the driver didn't have an illegal plate he wouldn't have been pulled and I could have been dealing with another offence. Who knows?

Incapable of prioritising your time then. I used to hold the ivory tower responsible for the performance of the force, however it appears that this attitude may have some bearing on the reason burglary conviction rate is such an embarrassment for your profession.

[BRR]

av185 said:

The fk the law attitude of Chavplaters invariably extends to other criminal activity.

Invariably? so all people with a "chav plate" also get involved in other criminal activity? perhaps it's similar to how people say weed is a gateway drug to crack, Chav plate today, people trafficking ring tomorrow

[ciege]

divetheworld said:

HantsRat said:

pheasant said:

Ok the man was a prat and failed the attitude test, but wouldn't your time have been better spent pulling a tailgater or MLH ??

Correct. If the driver didn't have an illegal plate he wouldn't have been pulled and I could have been dealing with another offence. Who knows?

Incapable of prioritising your time then. I used to hold the ivory tower responsible for the performance of the force, however it appears that this attitude may have some bearing on the reason burglary conviction rate is such an embarrassment for your profession.

[djc206]

divetheworld said:

Incapable of prioritising your time then. I used to hold the ivory tower responsible for the performance of the force, however it appears that this attitude may have some bearing on the reason burglary conviction rate is such an embarrassment for your profession.

He’s a traffic cop you tit, his job is to police the roads.

[HantsRat]

divetheworld said:

Incapable of prioritising your time then.

My primary job role and time is spent enforcing road traffic laws. If I see dangerous or careless/inconsiderate driving it gets dealt with. If I see an illegal plate it also gets dealt with. If I get sent to a burglary that will also get dealt with. If i'm on route to a burglary/murder/insert other serious job and I see an illegal plate, would I deal with it? No. However if I'm on routine patrol looking for offences yes it will be dealt with.

Quite simple really. Even simpler is don't fit an illegal plate in the first place.

[D1ckie]

85Carrera said:

Exactly - there are proper personalised plates and then there is the chav crap that has knocking around for the last few years where illegal spacing is used to attempt to spell something but just looks st.

Classic example is the Bentley I saw this morning - BE11NND. First thing that came to my mind was “bellend”; God knows what it’s supposed to spell.

I agree, why would you need to put a plate on a car that tries to signify what the car is, I get personalised plates for your initials / name / company but spelling out the make / model of your car is pointless

[Armitage.Shanks]

HantsRat said:

Gave a chap a ticket the other month for this. He started stating that everyone does it. In the 10 minutes of checks and filling out the ticket not 1 vehicle passed with an illegal plate and this was on a busy motorway. He soon shut up.

3 weeks later saw the same guy with the same illegal plate. DVLA have now revoked his 4 character plate. All simply could have been avoided by just following the rules.

I personally don't get it. You don't change the serial number of your TV or hoover so why change the 'serial number' of a car?

How do you make a 4 digit plate illegal? OK fair play if he's used a number of screw caps and font to make a number look like a letter etc. but if it's the correct font/size but the numbers are too close to the letters then in the grand scheme of things we've got more to worry about. If he was driving like a bellend or fails the attitude test then fair enough.

I aint condoning it but priorities seem to differ across the country.

[Dromedary66]

In my experience there is a strong correlation between misspelt/vanity plates and driving like a .

[Stoofa]

There is a massive difference between seeing a legally spaced, good personalised number plate - which always makes me smile and seeing an illegally spaced, bolts to change letters, tiny writing, stupid font plate that makes me want to cry.
I still think B16 CAT was still one of my favourites. Correctly spaced, no attempt to turn the 6 into anything else, correct font, just looked perfect.

[Jarcy]

twister said:

It's one thing to be able to correctly read a dodgy plate given a still image of said plate that you can take your time studying. Now imagine you've witnessed something like a hit and run where you were only able to grab a brief glimpse of the offenders plate, and where no other evidence about the identify of the offending vehicle is available. Quick now, was it AB55ABY or ABS548Y or perhaps even A855ABY?

Even just taking out the space means you've lost useful information about which format the number was in and therefore whether those uncertain characters would need to have been letters or digits, even before you start getting into more unwelcome modifications such as different typefaces, strategically placed bolt heads etc.

Yet, the opposite can be true.
"I didn't catch the make and model of the car, but I remember it was driven by J4YNE".

For that matter, you're prepared to pay DVLA £3,000 for a number plate that spells J4YNE, but not for one that just reads J4 YNE