Was in Telford magistrates Court Friday for the unforgiveable crime of mispacing letters on a number plate!
I thought i was at least going to get a hefty fine & DVLA taking away the plates. Very suprised when magistrate told me case should not have gone to court & case dismissed!!!!!

Will keep the plate legal for a while because i think Mr.Plod will be on my case when they find out the case was dismissed

 

The police can sometimes be twats.

 

Only Sometimes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Why should it not have gone to court? The DVLA warnings are quite clear I thought, leaving little or no doubt about the legislation for correct spacing.

Glad for you - but curious about the legal position.

 

How much do you think it cost of our money to send it to court in the first place.

You gotta wonder who makes the decision to send cases to court or not. I met a CPS prosecutor at a conference a few weeks ago and she was explaining how hard it was to get a case to court. Obviously different if they think there's a bit of cash in it

 

It's a petty crime, but it's an easy grand at the end of the day. Another prime example of hitting the motorist because they're an easy target.

 

DVLA warnings are quite clear, but i think courts are more interested in Tax & Insurance dodgers!!!

Was late friday afternoon & i think they wanted to go home early!! Bloke from DVLA asked me i had changed it, obviously i have so slapped wrist naughty boy don't do it again!!!!!

 

How did it end up in court? Did you ask to go or was there no choice?

There must have been something between being pulled and standing in front of me lord? Does this mean the plod no longer issue compulsory MOT re-tests?

 

From DVLA site -

In Brief

All registration marks including marks purchased through DVLA's sales scheme must be displayed in accordance with The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001 (obtainable from Her Majesty's stationery Office).

Rules for the display of number plates are set out in law, briefly these are: -

A number plate must be displayed at the front and rear of motor vehicles (with some exceptions).
Number Plates must be easy to read and meet the British Standard.
Lettering should be black on a white plate at the front and a yellow at the rear.
The background surface should be reflex-reflecting but the characters must not.
There are separate requirements for traditional number plates displayed on vehicles constructed before 1 January 1973.
Lettering and spacing must be of a set size. They must conform to one of the groups shown at:- Number plates fitted after 1 September 2001 or Number plates fitted before 1 September 2001.



NUMBER PLATES FITTED AFTER 1 SEPTEMBER 2001
Number plates fitted after 1 September 2001 must display characters that meet the dimensions shown below.

Characters
Height 79mm
Width (except the figure 1 or letter l) 50mm
Stroke 14mm
Space between characters 11mm
Space between groups 33mm
Top, bottom and side margins (minimum) 11mm
Space between vertical lines 19mm

The character width has been slightly reduced from 57mm to 50mm to accommodate the Euro-symbol on the number plate.



THE LAW
The law states that,

You must not alter, rearrange or misrepresent the letters or numbers
Characters must not be moved from one group to the other (e.g. A242 ABC must not be displayed as A242A BC).
Offences may result in any or all of the following:

A fine of up to

 

Excellent news that , your a marked man now