Is it legal for the garage to bin my foreign license plates?

[Speedboat85Z]

We recently returned from working abroad, driving a car with license plates belonging to a foreign government. This week we took the car for its MOT and asked the garage to fit the UK plates again while they were at it.

They returned the car with the new plates in place, but when we got home we discovered the old plates were not in the car.

We called the garage and asked for the plates, as we are legally obliged to return them to the foreign government in question. They told us they had thrown away the plates and insisted they are gone. We are in the middle of the country, it is not a bin collection day, and it is difficult to imagine they could have completely disappeared them within a few hours.

This strikes me not only as very annoying, but also as a little suspicious.

Am I right to feel suspicious / wonder about nefarious motives?
Do I have cause to escalate this complaint, legally speaking?
What would you do?

Many thanks.

[The Rotrex Kid]

In the UK the physical plates don’t belong to the government so when they’re replaced, the old ones go in the bin. Unless you explicitly asked them to retain and return the plates to you, they were under no obligation to do so IMO.

Your mistake unfortunately. You will have to sort it.

[carreauchompeur]

They are on the garage apprentice’s bedroom wall now. HTH

[The big yin]

I would be contacting the garage (or turning up first thing Monday ) and asking /politely demanding you get the foreign plates back asap as they are still your property, and technically could be regarded as theft.
I would check with consumer protection or somewhere else for advice first.
Let us know how you get on.

[Gareth79]

The Rotrex Kid said:

In the UK the physical plates don’t belong to the government so when they’re replaced, the old ones go in the bin. Unless you explicitly asked them to retain and return the plates to you, they were under no obligation to do so IMO.

Disagree. It's not the same as them replacing worn-out brake pads where the old part is very unlikely to be wanted afterwards, or replacing a smashed plate like-for-like.

Also it should be common-sense for any garage that when swapping to a different plate (even between UK plates) the old ones are retained.

[Rushjob]

The Rotrex Kid said:

In the UK the physical plates don’t belong to the government so when they’re replaced, the old ones go in the bin. Unless you explicitly asked them to retain and return the plates to you, they were under no obligation to do so IMO.

Your mistake unfortunately. You will have to sort it.

Funny but where I worked we registered several foreign bikes for folks coming to Iive in the UK and never did we dispose of plates or headlights we changed over for UK complaint ones.

Then again, we knew our jobs......

The garage most certainly are required to return your property ( or that of the country you have just left ) unless you have given authority to them to dispose of them on your behalf.

Obviously, you will be able to supply a link to legislation in the UK that supports your stance, otherwise, take a look at the Theft Act 1968.....

[Random Account No6]

If they need to be returned to whichever government just ask the garage to confirm (writing) they have destroyed them and not at your request.

They might turn up.

[The Rotrex Kid]

Gareth79 said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

In the UK the physical plates don’t belong to the government so when they’re replaced, the old ones go in the bin. Unless you explicitly asked them to retain and return the plates to you, they were under no obligation to do so IMO.

Disagree. It's not the same as them replacing worn-out brake pads where the old part is very unlikely to be wanted afterwards, or replacing a smashed plate like-for-like.

Also it should be common-sense for any garage that when swapping to a different plate (even between UK plates) the old ones are retained.

Disagree all you like, there’s no ‘common sense’ in retaining old plates when they’re not required to. Main dealers for instance may sell thousands of used cars each year and will replace lots of those plates. Keeping them would mean containers full of old plates. There’s no sense in that, common or otherwise.

[The Rotrex Kid]

Theft

Goodness me, this place is ace sometimes.

[loskie]

Rotrex: are you not just a car salesperson? Or now a legal expert?

[The Rotrex Kid]

loskie said:

Rotrex: are you not just a car salesperson? Or now a legal expert?

I’m neither. HTH.

Just my opinion, would love to see this case in court though.

[Rough101]

I’ve no idea why everyone thinks the garage would know to retain the plates, UK ones just go in the bin.

You should have informed them you need them back.

[BoRED S2upid]

Gareth79 said:

Disagree. It's not the same as them replacing worn-out brake pads where the old part is very unlikely to be wanted afterwards, or replacing a smashed plate like-for-like.

Also it should be common-sense for any garage that when swapping to a different plate (even between UK plates) the old ones are retained.

Really? Why would that be common sense? The op asked them to be swapped and didn’t ask them to be kept so in the bin they go. The common sense should have been the OP asking for them to be kept.

[Rushjob]

The Rotrex Kid said:

Gareth79 said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

In the UK the physical plates don’t belong to the government so when they’re replaced, the old ones go in the bin. Unless you explicitly asked them to retain and return the plates to you, they were under no obligation to do so IMO.

Disagree. It's not the same as them replacing worn-out brake pads where the old part is very unlikely to be wanted afterwards, or replacing a smashed plate like-for-like.

Also it should be common-sense for any garage that when swapping to a different plate (even between UK plates) the old ones are retained.

Disagree all you like, there’s no ‘common sense’ in retaining old plates when they’re not required to. Main dealers for instance may sell thousands of used cars each year and will replace lots of those plates. Keeping them would mean containers full of old plates. There’s no sense in that, common or otherwise.

The flaw with that argument is that the main dealer will own the car when they put it up for sale with their own dealer plate markings. The car referred to was in for work, never belonged to the garage so how can they justify "disposing" of someone's property?
We had an apprentice who was caught on CCTV taking the alloy valve caps off a customers bike cuz they were shiny and replaced them with standard black ones and put the shiny ones on his moped.
Customer noticed and said who's pissed about with my wheels?
Apprentice sacked on the spot for gross misconduct and we had to invoice about £200 or so of work to the workshop account instead of charging the customer by way of an apology

[The Rotrex Kid]

Rushjob said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

Gareth79 said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

In the UK the physical plates don’t belong to the government so when they’re replaced, the old ones go in the bin. Unless you explicitly asked them to retain and return the plates to you, they were under no obligation to do so IMO.

Disagree. It's not the same as them replacing worn-out brake pads where the old part is very unlikely to be wanted afterwards, or replacing a smashed plate like-for-like.

Also it should be common-sense for any garage that when swapping to a different plate (even between UK plates) the old ones are retained.

Disagree all you like, there’s no ‘common sense’ in retaining old plates when they’re not required to. Main dealers for instance may sell thousands of used cars each year and will replace lots of those plates. Keeping them would mean containers full of old plates. There’s no sense in that, common or otherwise.

The flaw with that argument is that the main dealer will own the car when they put it up for sale with their own dealer plate markings. The car referred to was in for work, never belonged to the garage so how can they justify "disposing" of someone's property?
We had an apprentice who was caught on CCTV taking the alloy valve caps off a customers bike cuz they were shiny and replaced them with standard black ones and put the shiny ones on his moped.
Customer noticed and said who's pissed about with my wheels?
Apprentice sacked on the spot for gross misconduct and we had to invoice about £200 or so of work to the workshop account instead of charging the customer by way of an apology

The incident you describe is theft. If you can’t see the difference between that and the issue being discussed in this thread, that’s on you.

It’s very different to replacing number plates which are, in the UK, a throwaway item.

I was answering the point raised that it’s ‘common sense’ to retain plates changed, when that is bks.

If you send a vehicle in for something to be replaced, you should, IMO, ask if you want to keep the replaced part, otherwise it’s entirely reasonable to find it gone in the bin.

[loskie]

Stick to workin' for Arnold Shark Rotrex, you ain't nothin.

[The Rotrex Kid]

loskie said:

Stick to workin' for Arnold Shark Rotrex, you ain't nothin.

Ha, good one, nice one fella, well done. Amazing.

[Deerfoot]

The Rotrex Kid said:

In the UK the physical plates don’t belong to the government so when they’re replaced, the old ones go in the bin. Unless you explicitly asked them to retain and return the plates to you, they were under no obligation to do so IMO.

Those plates did not belong to the garage and they were not theirs to dispose of. They were not UK plates.

[loskie]

assumptions are great. Aren't they?

[The Rotrex Kid]

Deerfoot said:

The Rotrex Kid said:

In the UK the physical plates don’t belong to the government so when they’re replaced, the old ones go in the bin. Unless you explicitly asked them to retain and return the plates to you, they were under no obligation to do so IMO.

Those plates did not belong to the garage and they were not theirs to dispose of. They were not UK plates.

Unless they are told different, how are they expected to know that?

They replaced the plates as they were asked. Job done.