Number plates

[Code Monkey]

What is the offence for driving without a number plate?

I understood that to not display a plate warrented a £30 fine, yet to get your photo taken by Mr Gatso is a charge of £60 and 3 points.

Is this right? In which case why would anyone have a plate on the car?

[7db]

Cos if it were done to pervert the course of justice, then the penalty would be higher.

[Bing o]

7db said:

Cos if it were done to pervert the course of justice, then the penalty would be higher.

Surely that depends if you are a grandfather or a premiership footballer who shags girls old enough to be his daughter?

[Code Monkey]

7db said:

Cos if it were done to pervert the course of justice, then the penalty would be higher.

But how can this be proven and you have not had some scrote remove it or, it fell off in a multi storey and you have not put it back on again or, any other excuse

[RaksP]

Bing o said:

7db said:

Cos if it were done to pervert the course of justice, then the penalty would be higher.

Surely that depends if you are a grandfather or a premiership footballer who shags girls old enough to be his daughter?

[vonhosen]

Code Monkey said:

What is the offence for driving without a number plate?

I understood that to not display a plate warrented a £30 fine, yet to get your photo taken by Mr Gatso is a charge of £60 and 3 points.

Is this right? In which case why would anyone have a plate on the car?

It also carries a discretionary disqualification.

This appears to be a familiar thought process & consequently I'm beginning to come around to the idea that that every vehicle spotted failing to display a properly fixed plate should be stopped & the driver reported. Whatever lame excuse given, no discretion shown.

[TTwiggy]

vonhosen said:

Code Monkey said:

What is the offence for driving without a number plate?

I understood that to not display a plate warrented a £30 fine, yet to get your photo taken by Mr Gatso is a charge of £60 and 3 points.

Is this right? In which case why would anyone have a plate on the car?

It also carries a discretionary disqualification.

This appears to be a familiar thought process & consequently I'm beginning to come around to the idea that that every vehicle spotted failing to display a properly fixed plate should be stopped & the driver reported. Whatever lame excuse given, no discretion shown.

so if the very low slung plate on the front of my Elise is knocked off due the frankly appaling state of the roads in this country, I should be disqualified?...

(no ifs, buts, or sorrys)...

[TripleS]

vonhosen said:

Code Monkey said:

What is the offence for driving without a number plate?

I understood that to not display a plate warrented a £30 fine, yet to get your photo taken by Mr Gatso is a charge of £60 and 3 points.

Is this right? In which case why would anyone have a plate on the car?

It also carries a discretionary disqualification.

This appears to be a familiar thought process & consequently I'm beginning to come around to the idea that that every vehicle spotted failing to display a properly fixed plate should be stopped & the driver reported. Whatever lame excuse given, no discretion shown.

Aye well, you know why people are increasingly attracted to the idea of no plates though, and I must say the ploy has some appeal.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[vonhosen]

TTwiggy said:

vonhosen said:

Code Monkey said:

What is the offence for driving without a number plate?

I understood that to not display a plate warrented a £30 fine, yet to get your photo taken by Mr Gatso is a charge of £60 and 3 points.

Is this right? In which case why would anyone have a plate on the car?

It also carries a discretionary disqualification.

This appears to be a familiar thought process & consequently I'm beginning to come around to the idea that that every vehicle spotted failing to display a properly fixed plate should be stopped & the driver reported. Whatever lame excuse given, no discretion shown.

so if the very low slung plate on the front of my Elise is knocked off due the frankly appaling state of the roads in this country, I should be disqualified?...

(no ifs, buts, or sorrys)...

You'd qualify for conviction & a fine, the disqualification would be a matter for the court having regard to all the circumstances.

[TTwiggy]

ok Von, i'll give you another example...

a few weeks ago a couple of kids were ripping plates off the back of cars in the car park of my girlfriend's block of flats, and slinging them over a wall. (I called the police, who dealt with it, but I digress)

This was a Sunday evening, and I assume that many of those poor s*ds were going to be using their cars for work the next day - so they should also be fined then (because I guess 'some scrote ripped it off for a laugh' would be a 'lame excuse')?

[Bing o]

vonhosen said:

This appears to be a familiar thought process & consequently I'm beginning to come around to the idea that that every vehicle spotted failing to display a properly fixed plate should be stopped & the driver reported. Whatever lame excuse given, no discretion shown.

Great idea, we could have "no number plate" cameras...

And it may surprise you von, but I do know people in low slung cars who have done this by accident, but, like you say, no discretion shown. Unlike the drug user who would get off with a friendly warning not to do it again, but then we know who the REAL criminals are these days don't we?

Besides, with the new rear facing cameras to get bikes, I am sure that the [i]tax[/-] revenue stream will remain uninterrupted....

[Sheriff JWPepper]

vonhosen said:

Code Monkey said:

What is the offence for driving without a number plate?

I understood that to not display a plate warrented a £30 fine, yet to get your photo taken by Mr Gatso is a charge of £60 and 3 points.

Is this right? In which case why would anyone have a plate on the car?

It also carries a discretionary disqualification.

This appears to be a familiar thought process & consequently I'm beginning to come around to the idea that that every vehicle spotted failing to display a properly fixed plate should be stopped & the driver reported. Whatever lame excuse given, no discretion shown.

That's the spirit VH.

[Negative Creep]

Somebody you don't like? Sneak over his that evening and remove his plates, then sit and laugh when he gets disqualified

[JD]

Code Monkey said:

What is the offence for driving without a number plate?

I understood that to not display a plate warrented a £30 fine, yet to get your photo taken by Mr Gatso is a charge of £60 and 3 points.

Is this right? In which case why would anyone have a plate on the car?

Most times its been a stern word

only once a £30 fine

money saved on travelling up and down the A14 every week?

[cptsideways]

"It fell off when I clipped the Armco, small sideways mishap at 130 mph, officer"



"Really now" says Mr Plod with his beady eye on my licence



"Yes, it really did fall off & broke into pieces, so I left it at the track"



Cue a look of total empuzzlement & questions about just "what" I was doing at the time

Edited by cptsideways on Tuesday 14th August 23:07

[bi9_jk]

Again its a test of reasonableness.

Consider the situation outlined above with said "scrotes". Now lets say they have ripped the plate off the back of your car. You come out of your home in the morning and walk towards your car, towards the front of your car and get in the drivers side. You have not seen the back of your car such that you are unaware that the plate is absent. Have you comitted an offence?

No. Proof in that situation, other cars around where yours was parked with similiar problems. Your admission that you always park your car that way.

Any reason why this would not work with the front plate? Lack of knowledge.

Im not sure of the procedure for rectifying not having a plate.

Reporting not having it as a result of theft would stand in someones favour,(not only that but you have informed them the vehilce has no plate) also acting with diligence, If you get stopped the discretion will likely be applied if: You have ordered another plate and have yet to pick it up, You have maskingtaped a cut sheet of paper displaying your reg(on a dry day). Furthest most is you do not act like a dick to the police. They are out to get you for perverting the course of justice not for having no plate as a result of a scrote, a bit of reason and manner will go along way.

[Uncle Fester]

vonhosen said:

Code Monkey said:

What is the offence for driving without a number plate?

I understood that to not display a plate warrented a £30 fine, yet to get your photo taken by Mr Gatso is a charge of £60 and 3 points.

Is this right? In which case why would anyone have a plate on the car?

It also carries a discretionary disqualification.

This appears to be a familiar thought process & consequently I'm beginning to come around to the idea that that every vehicle spotted failing to display a properly fixed plate should be stopped & the driver reported. Whatever lame excuse given, no discretion shown.

And when the ASBO generation catch on to that becoming a standard Police response what will happen?

They will take evey plate they can just for the trouble it causes.

[Richard C]

Sheriff JWPepper said:

vonhosen said:

Code Monkey said:

What is the offence for driving without a number plate?

I understood that to not display a plate warrented a £30 fine, yet to get your photo taken by Mr Gatso is a charge of £60 and 3 points.

Is this right? In which case why would anyone have a plate on the car?

It also carries a discretionary disqualification.

This appears to be a familiar thought process & consequently I'm beginning to come around to the idea that that every vehicle spotted failing to display a properly fixed plate should be stopped & the driver reported. Whatever lame excuse given, no discretion shown.

That's the spirit VH.

lame excuse ? my @rse. Have you ever attempted to purchase a number plate these days von. Thanks to the lamebrains in DfT who think that rules and procedures might deter cloning, its more difficult than buying a subversive book from that bookstore on Nevsky Prospekt in the days of the former Soviet Union.

[eltax91]

I have to voice that i agree with Von here. I think it is starting to become quite prevelant that people post on this forum, asking what the fine is if they don't display a number plate. A certain percentage of posters (and readers) will then take the option of removing their plates to avoid the scamera's. Whilst there is no getting away from the fact that if the Gov't reduced scamera levels then these tyes of "crime" would reduce, Von is dead right that at some point, the authoraties will start to prosecute, rather than excercise common sense and give a telling off, simply because they'll start to see it more and more.

I think that any Police officer who see's the potential for a crime increase daily, and reads about how people intend to "dodge" the law on internet forums and does NOTHING about it, is not worthy of wearing the uniform. The police are there to enforce the law and serve the people of this country. If my next door neighbour removes his numberplate for 3 months to avoid speeding fines, but i refuse to do this because i don't want to blatantly flaunt the law, i for one would want the BiB to fine him and do everything within their power to stop his blatent disregard for everyone else.

[Cooperman]

So, to take an example, I go on holiday to, say, Scotland from the South of England. I have the misfortune whilst touring the Highlands to have a 'birdstrike' on the front of my car which breaks the plate (I have actually had this happen, although not in Scotland - it was a large pheasant early one morning). Thus I am left with only half a number plate. To purchase a new plate I must produce the V5 for the vehicle together with an acceptable method of identification such as a utility bill plus photo I.D.
Now, if Von has his way, I have to return to my home by other means of transport (train or plane then bus or taxi from airport/station), get the required documentation together, go and buy a front plate, return to Scotland where my car and wife and Grandchildren are stuck on holiday without transport, fit the plate and continue my holiday. If I don't do this I'll be disqualified from driving with no excuse accepted.
Don't be ridiculous!