Number plates and registering them.....

[V8Cerbera]

Okay, Now I may have this wrong but as far as I was aware a registration mark my be registered to only ONE vehicle.

Now I requested the link for checking out what car a plate is registered to as there is a VERY distinctive plate going around in this area and since the start of the year, it's been on a BMW X5, Land Rover and a BMW Mini Cooper S. Now with the amount of time it takes to get plates changed over nowadays (nearly a month when I changed mine) I was suspicious of this and wanted to check it out, so I did and sure enough it was registered to the Mini, which was the last car I saw wearing it, so I figured that the owner was just bloody indecisive with their car(s) as they were all parked in about the same place...

UNTILL TODAY

Today I have seen it on an Aston Martin DB9 (driving about) and the Mini (parked) within hours of each other. Checked it again -

Make MINI
Year of manufacture 2007
Model COOPER S
Engine size(CC) 1598

Is this legal? If it's not and any interested parties or BiB want details then contact me.
Can anyone shed any light on this?

[vonhosen]

No it's not legal.

[supermono]

V8Cerbera said:

If it's not and any interested parties or BiB want details then contact me.

If the plate is registered in their name on their car, which it almost certainly is (after all one of their cars checks out, if it was cloned etc there'd probably be a different car altogether), what's the difference to you? If they commit a traffic offence of any sort justice, if you can call it that, will find its way to them, and they'll probably suffer an additional penalty for the tricky registration thing, but the plates in and of themselves seem trivial to me.

So why dob them in? What harm are they doing to you or anybody else? Doesn't the motorist get enough grief from the PTB never mind if shady civilians start poking around too.

From the cars you describe this person must be well off and sounds like a net contributor to UK plc in at least taxes and probably employment so is helping run the place for you and I -- just the kind of citizen this country needs and should applaud. So what happens? Suddenly he gets dobbed in by someone skulking around in internet fora. Maybe you should tackle him direct if it bothers you so much...

SM

[J500ANT]

Those online (RAC?) check things are sometimes very out of date though, one of our plates was still showing as being on a car sold 3yrs before.

[ean218]

supermono said:

From the cars you describe this person must be well off and sounds like a net contributor to UK plc in at least taxes and probably employment so is helping run the place for you and I -- just the kind of citizen this country needs and should applaud.

That does not sound very likely. Anyone selfish enough to do this is probably not paying their dues in taxes. For a start they are not paying the fees to DVLA for the registration mark transfers. If the cars have dodgy plates they are probably not taxed correctly either and who can guess about insurance.

From my experience this sort of flippant attitude to one's responsibilities will definitely be carried on into the person's business life. I would not let them have any credit for a start...

[supermono]

ean218 said:

Anyone selfish enough to do this is probably not paying their dues in taxes.... probably not taxed correctly either and who can guess about insurance....definitely be carried on into the person's business life.

Very very rash assumptions these, but let's taken it further; the cars are probably stolen and he's a paedophile too. Probably made his money by drug dealing too. After all he is displaying the same plate illegally on more than one vehicle so who knows what he's capable of?

What happened to live and let live? I'm still betting he's paying more tax than you or I and is on balance a net contributor to the UK plc.

I would rather leave the police to do their job, if they think it's important enough, and use his apparent wealth as inspiration to strive for better things for myself.

SM

[V8Cerbera]

Why does it piss me off? Well no reason really, I just have the mind of a cop - when something doesn't look right I feel compelled to investigate it. Who said I'd grassed on them? I asked for opinions, if someone else wants to take a greater interest then they should contact me - *THAT* is why I didn't post the reg mark on here.

As previously stated, if there are multiple vehicles running around with the same (incorrect) plate. Then they couldn't get a VALID MOT, the tax would be wrong.... insurance? Who the hell knows.

[ean218]

supermono said:

Very very rash assumptions these, but let's taken it further; the cars are probably stolen and he's a paedophile too. Probably made his money by drug dealing too. After all he is displaying the same plate illegally on more than one vehicle so who knows what he's capable of?

I quite agree, but based on past experience the person involved is more likely to be involved with fraud than paedophilia.

supermono said:

What happened to live and let live?

No such thing if he's breaking the law.

supermono said:

I would rather leave the police to do their job, if they think it's important enough, and use his apparent wealth as inspiration to strive for better things for myself.

Definitely agree it is up to the police to investigate but they can only act on information received unless the one beat cop per town we have nowadays actually notices himself.

Again from past experience, the wealth may well be only apparent...