Lancia Motor Club

This has just been issued by Bedfordshire Police, from what I've been told the APNR Kit can't read the old style number plates but speed cameras are a different story!

10 May 2012
 
Drivers are Warned or Penalised for Using Illegal Number Plates
 
In a three-Force month-long campaign 278 drivers were given a formal penalty for using a misrepresented number plate on their vehicle. Depending on the circumstances, they received a fixed penalty ticket, a vehicle defect rectification notice or a police warning.
Officers from the ANPR Intercept Teams (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) and Road Policing Units of Hertfordshire Constabulary, Bedfordshire Police and Cambridgeshire Constabulary joined forces for the campaign, called Operation Dragon, which ran throughout March.

Regional results were:
Bedfordshire 60 vehicles; Cambridgeshire 62 vehicles; Hertfordshire 156 vehicles
Number plates that are difficult to read correctly are illegal and make it difficult to identify vehicles that are involved in crime, for example, tracing a stolen car or a vehicle used in a getaway after a robbery.
As part of Operation Dragon, ANPR officers looked out for motorists with number plates that:
displayed adjusted fixings or bolts which alter spaces or obscure characters to appear as something else

used any font that is not the standard DVLA approved ‘Charles Wright’ font

used offensive wording

were not easily readable or recognised by the naked eye.
Number plates should correctly be made from a reflective material. Front number plates must display black characters on a white background and rear number plate must display black characters on a yellow background.
Further information on how a number plate should be correctly displayed can be found on the DVLA website: www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/PersonalisedRegAndNumberPlates/DG_181503

ANPR Manager in the joint Beds & Herts Road Policing Unit, Inspector Andy Piper, said: “ANPR teams across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire work hard to keep their counties safe and tackle criminals coming into these areas to commit crime.

“Addressing misrepresented registrations is a very important part of this on-going work. The month long crack-down across the three counties, when we specifically targeted this particular offence, will be repeated in the summer but is something we look out for on a daily basis.

“If you are displaying a number plate which is illegal, you will be pulled over and could face a fine of up to £1,000. I would therefore urge anyone using a misrepresented plate, or who is not aware of the permitted layout, to familiarise themselves with the correct format and change it as soon as possible.”

How does ANPR work?

The devices are used by police around the UK to detect and remove from the roads serious criminals (including burglars, robbers, drug dealers and fraudsters) unsafe vehicles and unsafe drivers.
ANPR instantly highlights suspicious vehicles to officers so the vehicles can be stopped and the ‘flagged’ issues investigated. The camera can read a number plate every second, and compares it against several local and national databases. It offers a more targeted approach than traditional methods, meaning fewer law-abiding motorists have their journeys interrupted and more criminals and unsafe vehicles are taken off the road.
      
Brian
8227 8)

Hi Brian

Thanks for that.

I assume this relates to more modern cars

"Number plates should correctly be made from a reflective material. Front number plates must display black characters on a white background and rear number plate must display black characters on a yellow background."

Presumably there are age related rules about the old style black/silver plates?

Peter

Also I am right in saying smaller then prescribed license plates are permissable for cars with bumper apertures for smaller plates?richard

Peter.
Black & Silver old style Black Plates,
There obviously are, but to be honest I'm don't know what they are.
Regarding Richards comments, my 2c had the large UK Black with Silver front number plate but underneath was a mounting plate shaped to the bumpers profile, suitable to take Italian style small number plates, I'd also read somewhere that if you had the original  small mounting that it was legal to use the small plates, whether or not this is true I have no idea, but I fitted a small front number plate a number of years ago and no one has ever pulled me up on it, so until someone does, I shall keep using it, as it's much more in keeping that the huge ugly Uk style plates.
The rear number plate is still the large square original.
Brian
8227 8)

It just seems a pity to me that the police have nothing better to do.
Where is the logic in using ANPR to pull in drivers with non-regulation plates on the grounds that ANPR connot read them!!!  And if they did it the old fashioned way how many hundreds of police man-hours did that soak up?
It has always seemed to me that witnesses to crimes etc are actually more likely to remember distinctive plates so the criminal fraternity are the least likely people to be displaying them.

               Fully qualified  GRUMPY OLD MAN.

As with everthing else there are laws about number plates.There are also myths.Under construction and use "Display of Vehicle Registration Marks on imported vehicles which have restricted space for a standard sized number plate".The vehicles construction/design cannot accomodate standard sized number plates, or the vehicle doesnt have european type approval.I suppose you could argue that on a fulvia coupe without bumpers a standard sized plate would obscure the holes in the front valance which are there for engine coolong.Thats my excuse m'lud.