Dave T-S

I shan't comment on the circumstances as I wasn't there, but the reason the police are clamping down on plates is quite simply because of photo recognition, and primarily because of the new congestion charge cameras being introduced in London. There will be much more of this if your plates do not conform to the precise regs, and if it makes anyone feel better you can blame dear old Ken Livingstone.

This is also why the DVLA rules on plates changed a while back, in that the supplier has to have their name on the plates, they have tightened up on the fonts and logos that can be displayed on plates, and finally why the DVLA rules on what ID is required to purchase new plates have tightened.

There are probably hundreds of thousands of cars running around on false plates, and it doesn't take Einstein to work out it's a good way of avoiding the congestion charge

Of course, what does this have to do with poor old Josh living out in Sticksville?.......as always, the actions of the minority affect the majority.

Pete Croney

PMSL at that one Josh

yoza

Well said Dave,its all become clear now.

I was wondering why Ive never had any mail from my Gatso flashes,or my parking fines.

Josh knows what I mean,Im living on borrowed time though.

All this for a Subaru Logo,talk about "TO THE LETTER OF THE LAW".

Not all coppers are jobsworths though,Ive had police behind me on numourouse occasions(no not that way ) and they have'nt bothered(I too have a none conforming plate)you just get the odd Mr Bean in every occupation.

Later Yoza

Josh L

Thanks Pete

Although I was absolutely fuming, I would probably not posted anything. However the 2 scoobs that saw on the hard shoulder, and sounded their horns, rather forced the issue. Thought I'd post before someone came up with a 'who was the twit nicked on the M1' topic.

Oh well. The Chief Constable's going to get a piece of my mind today. If only I could afford to spare any

Josh

JackClark

I have a standard plate on the back and non conforming on the front. It's worked so far.

Josh L

Dave,

I would have to say that I would have agreed with you 100% on Saturday.

However, on Sunday I was pulled by two 'mature' officers in a T5 type Volvo, who were more interested in my car/plates than the eratic/speeding drivers on a busy motorway.

Josh

dave_gt

Fair enough.

For anyone thats interested though, one of the really good pieces of driving I saw was late in December a couple of years ago. The roads were very slippy and I had just taken my girlfriend home. Coming up to a T-junction - I was on a minor road joining a quiet major road and turning left - there was a T5 police car approaching from my right and I put the brakes on at about 10mph near the junction. My front wheels locked and upon seeing this the T5 pulled into the other lane so that I could pull out if I couldn't stop. Fortunatley I could, but it was some good danger avoidance anyway.

mixit

Got ya beat !
2 years ago whilst driving to my local Video shop, I was pulled by the law in an unmarked car. As I got out the car there was a chopper hovering about 200ft up above us. Turns out they had been using Satalite image enhancement techniques to read my plate and the dealers name on the bottom of the plate had the wrong std code for the fax number !! I've just been released from Broadmoor

Stuart J

You only got 2 years, you were lucky, when I was lad .................................................. ....

But serious note, all this concentration on correct number plates must mean the tendancy to more technological ways of raising taxes are on the way, the only + side I suppose is they wont need so mant traffic police posing up & down the roads & they can go & get their hands dirty trying to catch REAL CRIMINALS !!!!!

johnfelstead

you could always buy an Import. You can run non standard plates that way (on an EVO anyway).

Josh L

I think I'd rather pay the fine!

ARM-Scooby

They are only bothered about cases where they can be sure they will get a conviction. We had a fight at work here where one guy hit the other with a mallet across the back of the head 5 times, not a fight just a disagreement and the other guy was walking away at the time he was attacked. When the plod started to take statements they said that if they didn’t get all of the facts the attacker may only end up with community service as the prisons are too full and they aren’t sending people to prison. The hammer bit worried me and the fact he attacked an unarmed guy from the rear.

Why the motorist? Like you say it’s an open and shut case where they can get you by the ***** and screw you, no social services moaning that you put the plate on due to adverse conditions whilst a youth, no equality groups sharing their 10 pence, just you against the law.
Money, money!!! The plod wants yours!!!

A good question is: Is it the police choosing to work this way or is it due to such a great legal system (protecting the guilty and enslaving the innocent) that the police are forced to carry out such tasks?

58GT

Some time ago I used to run a front plate about 50% of the legal size. Course, I got stopped. The guy was OK but when he told me about his 'offer' of a fixed penalty fine I refused. When he picked his jaw off the floor I told him that the car had been MOT'ed with the plate on (true) and that I never put it on (fib). I told him I wanted to go to court so he shrugged and wrote me up. Never heard a dickey bird. There's no way they'll go to court over a number plate size. I changed it afterwards to legal size. BTW that was on an import.

If you try this and you get knicked for the plate and wasting extremely valuable police time or somesuch bullsh!t don't blame me!

ARM-Scooby

Too much cost involved in it for them. Always ask for a photo when caught on camera, as half the time they forget about that too

yantoscooby

Talk about nothing to do........
My girlfriend bougth me a set of plates for Xmas to go on my Sti4. They have a cartoon of Scooby Do on them ( Ok I know, I know . I was pulled about a week into the New Year for the offending animal as being illegal. I debated this with plod as my girlfriend does happens to be a recepionist at large body repair shop ( comes in handy ) and they are perfectly legal as they do stupid graphics like that all day. The plod went away to phone a friend ( if they had one ) and came back with a very non commital we are going to look into this. Morons, all the Mikly Bar Kid look-a-like one wanted to do was know how I got it, how much it cost, what was the 0-60, what insurance group and so on. I have heard no more about it a month later so I presume they have found some other motorist to bother rather than arest criminals and keep the streets safe for the elderly.

greg.g

I got pulled over for being in possession of an offensive wife
{well, you havent seen here when she has got a strop on)

Or could it have been the barry manilow tape i was blasting out

Greg

Josh L

Oooooo Greg, you'll go to hell for that one You'd better hope she doesn't read that.

Skiddus_markus,
I also forgot to mention that, as far as I know, you were also looking at 100% of the PPPd cars in the UK, demonstrators and Press fleet aside

wakeboardar

lets all get together and go and beat up some coppers


only joking


i meant asylum seekers

Steve777

iTrader: (8)

Its sad if british law is coming to this

black knight

IMHO, it's the mentality of the force which has changed.

Guess the moto is 'go for easy targets like us - motorists'. Thje number of unsolved violent and gruesome cases nowadays are really scary and blowing out of proportion. why not aim more resources at those serious stuff?

*rant end*

Leslie

I understand exactly how you feel Josh-totally mindless way to treat you.

Trouble is, the only way to save fines etc like that is to make sure they have not got an excuse. maybe cheaper to get a legal number plate. Bikers have the same problem.

Les

MGJohn

>>'You are knicked for having an offensive person on your weapon'<<

That's a cracker!

More seriously, just back from a 300 mile round trip up to London and Essex area. Non standard number plates seem to be everywhere. Some so badly abused for some 'cool' effect that they were impossible to read easily. It's these which spoil it for the rest of us ......

Josh L

Spot on. That's one of my gripes.

I followed a discovery for a few miles, just before I was nicked, and the owner's name was obviously Gibson. It took me about 5 minutes to work out that it had started out as G18SGN, and only the s and n were standard characters!

Personally, I think it was just a random decision by the officers concerned, as there were plenty of other people they could have picked on, and they did nothing that actually forces me to do anything about the plate, other than the threat of another fine if I go through Leicestershire.

Josh

mutant_matt

58GT,Not true (well it didn't used to be anyway). I bought a bike back in 91 with a small plate on it and before I got round to changing it, (I actually had the blank plate and letters in my top box), I got nicked for it.

I went to court (was not offered a fixed penalty) and was fined £50 or so.

Having said that, these days, the courts probably haven't got time to deal with such a trivial offence...

Matt.

Dave T-S

Josh
His name was more likely Gibbon

Dave T-S

Matt
That's a serious offence, don't trivialise it! Of course the police/CPS would take time to deal with it!

Now burglary, that's a trivial offence judging by the 100+ offences offender that got let off this week under the new Woolf guidelines[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

FERRARINUTTER

WOOLF has a new policy for motorists:

Welcome
Overspeeding
Offences
Likely
Fines

greg.g

Josh
I know what you mean about doctored letters and numbers.
There are a few in my area that i cannot even read properly.
God knows what they are really meant to be.

As far as the wife is concerned, she has a good sence of humour.
She must have. She married me

Perhaps i had difficulty reading those plates as i might be
a bit dycksk llecks sik

ps
did not mean to offend anyone with reading difficulties
Greg

dan4

Now I don't like the attitude of some people on here but you lot are really taking the biscuit this time! By concentrating on the roads and not burglarys etc, the police know they will eventually catch all criminals. The burglars having robbed a poor little old ladies house will need to make their getaway. Being criminals they will have a flash number plate which has letters 1mm larger than the regulation limit. The burglars will be stopped for their illegal number plate (not the overflowing boot with a TV and fridge sticking out) and they and their swag will be taken down the local pig station, where the fuzz will share the spoils amongst themselves and give the crims 3 points and a £30 fine. Hhmmmmm I think that counts as ranting!

Josh L

Never thought of that.

Well that's OK then

Josh