please can anyone help

got a fixed penalty fine for my number plates on my car and the cops will not tell me why. took the plates to the police station they told me the numbers and letters are 3d but the dvla say you can and that the plates have the ford shadows on the back ground

the fine says reg mark not complying to regulations which from what i understand is meaning the letters and numbers not the background

plate means background, size etc
reg mark means the numbers and letters

can anyone help cos thepolice dont seem to want to.

[Edited on 28/1/06 by troid]

[Edited on 28/1/06 by troid]

The DVLA are pretty strict when it comes to registration plates.

Have a read here its quite straight forward.

Phil

If you look at the Frequently Asked Questions section, I believe the answers to questions 24 and 25 are what you're looking for.

It does seem a bit harsh though that you've been pulled for it. If your plate has the British Standards Specification (BS AU 145d), you may be within the law on the 3D letters. It appears they've got you on the background lettering though

[Edited on 28-1-06 by Hellfire]

this is what is peeing me off my car was parked outside my house and they put it on at 5.05 in the morning.

the other thing is that i was parked half on the kerb/path and the wrong way on the road but only did me on the plates

i have had police follow me loads of times as i live near the police station and never been pulled
i live on a housing estate that you cant drive through it has the same road to get in and out and the road is a dead end so why me

they seem to meet all the requirement apart from thr shadows

the plates were on when i got the car and has passed four mots aswell

[Edited on 28/1/06 by troid]

It's little incidents like this that give the Police a bad name in my opinion

They could have given you a warning first and asked you to correct it before giving you a fixed penalty notice. Maybe if you had been correctly parked in the first instance, your car wouldn't have drawn their attention. No consolation now though..............

[Edited on 28-1-06 by Hellfire]

just spoke to the police they said its a female trainee officer that has targets on each shift they do so get to know the law better

a good money spinner imo

most people that live around here park the same thats what i thought the fine was for at first


[Edited on 28/1/06 by troid]

No sympathy from me --- there was warning in the press that a crack down on illegal plates was underway. It was also fairly obvious that the tightening up of number plate regs was to allow Police to effectively enforce the law.

For too long a significant minority of car owners have been taking the mick with number plates.

I totally agree but I would hardly say that subtle shadowing on the background constitutes gross misrepresentation... I've seen far worse.

I think Troid hit the nail on the head - It's a good money spinner.

[Edited on 28-1-06 by Hellfire]

quote:

---

just spoke to the police they said its a female trainee officer that has targets on each shift they do so get to know the law better

---

if am in the wrong i dont mind but when the police pull you and find something minor wrong with your car you get a warning and a week to fix it

i bought the car as a wreck and spent nearly a grand and lots of hours to put it right to get fined for the number plates justs pees me off

Mmmm sympathies mate but prolly not a lot you can do about it now. At least there's no points to go with it (is there?)
However it is my firm beleive that this type of crap is why the public more and more fail to help the police out. It's a case of "you've pee'd me off officer so no I can't tell you anything that might help you, cause it's the only way I can get my own back on you"

no points, just out of pocket

At the end of the day it comes down to this.........

The police believe you're car wasn't legal, if you disagree then you should have the right to go to court - in reality from what you've said it sounds like it wasn't legal, its probably best to pay the fine, bitch loads, learn the lesson and not do it again.

If thats the case then ........ the our justice system has worked!

I've been caught speeding and driving a company car without tax. I excuse my offences lots of ways, I really believe a caution was more appropriate. But........ i now check every car for tax before i drive it & try a lot harder to drive at the speed limit - which means our justice system has once again worked.

Of course if i'm caught again for speeding when i've spent 99% of my journey at the speed limit - well, give me a few weeks to calm down cause i'll need it.

All too often targets are more important than common sense - which is why i do feel sorry for you. 7 days to fix, a telling off for parking the wrong way round & producer to wee you off a little would have been far more appropriate

Now does anyone know why they are cracking down on number plates? So they can use computers to read them........ big brother law enforcement a step closer!

Well I'll tell you a story of when I was in the pub one night I belive it was christmas 2000, and I had came out got into my car ( the old 80 quattro ) fired her up and drove out from the pub car park, when I got to the highstreet there was alot of people out side the pub (it was xmas eve so busy) and I got a few waves from some peeps I know and I got a few hand signals to wind her up a bit so me being young an stoopid I gladly did, Gave her a good bit of boot an the piper X induction kit was earning its money and I took off up the highstreet about 20feet before changing up and winding it back down just it time to realise that the police discovery was sitting 40feet up the other way on the hignstreet and suddenly pulled out and was heading straight for me. So knowing exactly what they were going to do Ipulled off the high street an into a yard of a local buisness stopped and waited for the police, Not only did the discovery pullin but also a unmarked volvo with 3 officers in it(it was busy on the street and they musta been looking out for trouble) so I got out the car an the first one comes straigt ofer an starts on at me about driving like an idiot with so many drunk people on the go an that an another came over and handed him the breathalizer the him and the three other p.c's looked over my car, yep four of them and the the one who was grilling me motioned at me to blow in the tester machine to see if I'd been drinking Which was fine coz I was only in the pub seeing mates and never drink an drive anyway, so it came back negative to which the bobbie looked a bit disapointed I think he was sure I was drinking and was going to nail me . so he ranted on a bit more about being sensible and the other four came back and sat back in their motors and waited for the last one who was still putting his 2pence worth into me and they all took off an leaft me to gather my thoughts an drive of home, only to remember that my tax disc was out at the end of november and waiting to get a new one in january (13month tax disc) So the moral of the story is 4 of them was lookin round me car for about 5 minnits wanting to do me for somthing and not one of them noticed the tax being out by a month
Abit of injustice there then

Mike

Got me a bit worried now . I only have 6 digits on number plate and on front plate have reduced overall width so it's no wider than nosecone . Haven't altered digits , size or spacing . Can't see any size requirements for number plates so I hope it's OK.

Possibly a valid point rusty nuts. There is adigit size and a digit spacing but is there an "overall must be this size"? anyone?

If you want injustice .........

friends hubby (was b/f then) was in the pub. Had a few drinks and as he was going to leave the car (due to drinking) moved it around in the car park to get it out of the way.

Police saw him. Breathalised him and nicked him for being over the limit despite the fact he never left the pub car park. Ended up with a 2 year ban and a fine. Now he wasn't living with my mate, but, the court took her earnings into consideration when deciding on the fine!

serious case of not fair!

My workmate was done for drink driving (in possesion of keys with with ign on to work leccy windows) while getting a jacket out of his car and shutting the sunroof in the pub car park. The sad fact is not very many of us have the money to fight the system so the system wins most times and we have to live with it

always thought after hearing my friends story, if i'm ever going to my car when i've had a couple of drinks i'll get in the passenger seat ........... love to see how they'll claim i'd drive it from there.

(of course, if i'm pished whats the chance of me remembering to get in the passenger seat?)

20 odd years ago came out of a pub and walked about 400yards to my car tha was parked off the road on a farm , when I got to car there was a cop car parked next to it with another dozen cars . Got into car and started engine , knock on window , is this your car sir ? yes ., could I ask you where you have been ? in the pub . Have you been drinking? yes. Can I ask you to breath in a breatherliser ? No , I' m on private property and have no intention of driving on the public road, in the mean time all my mates where getting into thier cars and driving down to the hanger/barn .I said to the cop I'm staying here tonight and have parked my car so that I didn't have to drive on the road . Very sensible sir , have a good night . Wouldn't get away with that now.

From the DVLA website

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

Assuming no 1's or I's the min dimensions would seem to be 460mm long & 101mm wide.

See here for more info
http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/regmarks/reg_marks_current_requirements.htm#after2001

so when you get your reg try to get one with lots of I's & 1's


I'll have

III111Q please

But no mention of overall size , mine may be OK . Think i'll chance it.

By wicket.
From the DVLA website

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

Assuming no 1's or I's the min dimensions would seem to be 460mm long & 101mm wide.

quote:

---

Originally posted by rusty nuts
Got me a bit worried now . I only have 6 digits on number plate and on front plate have reduced overall width so it's no wider than nosecone . Haven't altered digits , size or spacing . Can't see any size requirements for number plates so I hope it's OK.

---

No overall length & width is given but using the character & spacing dimensions specified the width is always going to be 101mm min & the length with no 1's or I's will be 460mm min.

quote:

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Originally posted by MikeR
always thought after hearing my friends story, if i'm ever going to my car when i've had a couple of drinks i'll get in the passenger seat ........... love to see how they'll claim i'd drive it from there.

(of course, if i'm pished whats the chance of me remembering to get in the passenger seat?)

---

why? not all plates have the same number of characters? some plates have as few as 3 characters!

[Edited on 30/1/06 by DaveFJ]

This might help...

LINKY

They seem to be a 'respectable' plate maker...

David

"Honest officer, no one was driving - we were all in the back singing!".

Surpising views (to me) about the problems with being in control of a vehicle when intoxicated issue. I've no sympathy, my reaction is "tough, the law is pretty clear, and it's there for a very good reason". I keep picturing the alternative - the police having to wait till the idiots are driving and perhaps killing someone first, before being able to do anything about it.