Foreign Owned - Possible Loophole? Need Help
Discussion
Harry Pellow, the esteemed builder of Porsche 356 engines started a small movement in California. Instead of fighting the system, he exploited its loopholes and vulnerabilities. Harry wanted to park his Porsche with impunity when small California towns started seeing parking tickets as a great revenue opportunity.
So, he devised a plan based on the following knowledge. In California you can order a license plate with custom letter-number combos. The combos are only censored if obscene. The plates are made by probably lazy folks. The officer must write the correct plate number on the ticket in order to enforce it. California plates at the time allowed seven characters.
Harry ordered a plate with a combination of “0” and “O” – that’s a few zeros and a few letter Os. Something like 0O0O0O0. When the license plate stamper looked at the order form, he just picked up a bunch of “O” dies and made a plate that read OOOOOOO. Now, this can be confusing to anyone viewing it, but with a little research it would have been easy to find out that the red Porsche 356 with a registration that started with either an “O” or “0” was Harry’s. So, he convinced a large group of other Porsche owners to do the same by ordering different combos of “O” and “0”. This created a large group of Porsches with a license plate that in effect read OOOOOOO. The state could hand out all the parking tickets they wanted, and try to look up Porsches with “O” and “0” plates, but they had a hard time making it stick.
Eventually though, California forbade using a zero on custom plates. Other states followed suit.
So, I’m proposing to help a pal who lives and drives in the UK by exploiting what I see as the best available loopholes…the company car and the car owned by a foreigner.
What’s to prevent me (USA resident) from owning a UK car, registering it under my name with UK registration and allowing my friend to purchase the tax, insure themselves and drive it? The official line for doing this would be that I will be traveling to the UK frequently and want to keep a car there but the friend will be keeping it up.
I will be the registered keeper (owner) and the registration will point to me.
What requirements for a UK address might I run into? What order do the documents have to be obtained – ownership, registration, MOT, tax disc, insurance? Can a car be owned and registered by one person and have the other aspects of ownership (MOT, tax) seen to by another? Can I purchase and register a car and not insure it under my name if I will never drive it? Some of this has been alluded to in other posts. Some of this was touched on in the “Banned – what would you do” thread with it’s recommendation of an Erie license and regs. I’d like to devise something that will work for some pals until the gov outplays us again.
So, he devised a plan based on the following knowledge. In California you can order a license plate with custom letter-number combos. The combos are only censored if obscene. The plates are made by probably lazy folks. The officer must write the correct plate number on the ticket in order to enforce it. California plates at the time allowed seven characters.
Harry ordered a plate with a combination of “0” and “O” – that’s a few zeros and a few letter Os. Something like 0O0O0O0. When the license plate stamper looked at the order form, he just picked up a bunch of “O” dies and made a plate that read OOOOOOO. Now, this can be confusing to anyone viewing it, but with a little research it would have been easy to find out that the red Porsche 356 with a registration that started with either an “O” or “0” was Harry’s. So, he convinced a large group of other Porsche owners to do the same by ordering different combos of “O” and “0”. This created a large group of Porsches with a license plate that in effect read OOOOOOO. The state could hand out all the parking tickets they wanted, and try to look up Porsches with “O” and “0” plates, but they had a hard time making it stick.
Eventually though, California forbade using a zero on custom plates. Other states followed suit.
So, I’m proposing to help a pal who lives and drives in the UK by exploiting what I see as the best available loopholes…the company car and the car owned by a foreigner.
What’s to prevent me (USA resident) from owning a UK car, registering it under my name with UK registration and allowing my friend to purchase the tax, insure themselves and drive it? The official line for doing this would be that I will be traveling to the UK frequently and want to keep a car there but the friend will be keeping it up.
I will be the registered keeper (owner) and the registration will point to me.
What requirements for a UK address might I run into? What order do the documents have to be obtained – ownership, registration, MOT, tax disc, insurance? Can a car be owned and registered by one person and have the other aspects of ownership (MOT, tax) seen to by another? Can I purchase and register a car and not insure it under my name if I will never drive it? Some of this has been alluded to in other posts. Some of this was touched on in the “Banned – what would you do” thread with it’s recommendation of an Erie license and regs. I’d like to devise something that will work for some pals until the gov outplays us again.
jeffreyarcher said:
What’s to prevent me (USA resident) from owning a UK car,
Nothing.
modernbeat said:
registering it under my name with UK registration
AIUI, the 'registered keeper' (the name on the log book) , who may be a corporate body, must have a U.K. address.
If the Company won't say who was driving then the Company Secretary get the summons. BTW, the Company Secretary may have a foreign address.
I like your thinking Modernbeat.
I wonder what would happen if I sold you my car and you filled in my registration document with your US address.
Where would the new registration document go? I don't want it, I've sold the car to you. Would it be posted to the US?
It's almost worth going out and buying a banger for £20 to see what would happen.
I wonder what would happen if I sold you my car and you filled in my registration document with your US address.
Where would the new registration document go? I don't want it, I've sold the car to you. Would it be posted to the US?
It's almost worth going out and buying a banger for £20 to see what would happen.
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