grandslamz Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Hi there. Obviously there are limitations regarding spacing of letters and numerals on number plates but is there an allowed deviation i.e. +/- 2mm etc. My plate is DT15BRY. I would like a slightly larger gap between the D & T and close the gap a little between the T & 1. Is there any legal room for manipulation? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninja_geezer Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Hi you should have a space after the DT15 so it should be laid out as follows DT15 BRY how you space it is up to you ive seen all sorts of strange plates driving about lately but if plod wants to pull you for a dodgy plate he can and will. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/359317/INF104_160914.pdf i must admit ive run some German style pressed alloy plates with 3d lettering for about 6 years now with no issues. like these example:http://i41.tinypic.com/2nvt6ph.jpg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laumk7 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 Why not stick to the standard layout for everyday driving and do what you like for showplates when showing off your motor at car shows and such? Ps how long did you have to wait to get your reg? I'm getting a 15 plate, it's only just been built, but I've no idea when I get the plate assigned, it'll come in handy for things like changing the insurance over in time and such Sent from my iPad using Ford OC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 The spacing and font are laid out under BSAU145D. http://www.bnma.org/legislation.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenST13 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Most people will change the size and spacing of there plates. I see it done all the time some are borderline on the law some are ridiculously against the law. It all boils down to the same as being on your phone whilst driving. If u get caught you'll get done for it but most still do it and get away with. 3 points and a £60 fine if mr plod is that way out and pulls you over for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 Due to the fact that more patrol cars are being equiped with ANPR systems a non-conforming plate layout is more likely to flag up and result in a tug. Is vanity worth the inconvenience of being repeatedly pulled over? The law on 'show plates' was recently changed making it illegal for UK companies to sell plates that do not comply with BSAU145D specifications. Describing them as 'show plates for off-road use only' is also not permitted. UK plate companies must comply with the legislation or they will be prosecuted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E5GDM Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 You can still legally buy 'show plates' if you want them Stoney, the law change was to make it harder to get false plates made up in the high street. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E5GDM Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 For example it's perfectly legal to purchase these if you so wished - http://www.simplyshowplates.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goodkat Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 LauMK7, the dealer should let you know at point of registration what the plate will be, a friend recently bought a brand new factory Peugeot and they gave him a choice of reg numbers a couple of weeks before collection. Sent from my Gen 1 WAP phone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 24, 2015 Share Posted January 24, 2015 You can still legally buy 'show plates' if you want them Stoney, the law change was to make it harder to get false plates made up in the high street.Sorry to burst your bubble but selling show plates is illegal no matter what companies in the UK say.A lot of them sell what they call 'show plates' which are actually identical to UK road legal plates however as they don't ask for proof of entitlement to posess a registration they are breaking DVLA regulations for producing plates without a licence and therefore are producing them illegally. If you dig into the company details you often find that they aren't actually in the UK (usually the ROI) and therefore aren't governed by DVLA regulations. http://signam.co.uk/content/dvla-gains-additional-powers-combat-supply-illegal-number-plates For an UK company to be able to sell plates IN the UK they must be licenced to do so and MUST sell Road Legal plates only. The sale of plates for novelty or show/off road use is 100% illegal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E5GDM Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Stoney I'm sorry but it's your bubble that's burst...... as It's onky illegal for registered dealers to sell 'show plates', not anyone else. Check out the last paragraph of the link below- http://www.myshowplates.com/article-a-guide-to-purchasing-number-plates.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Counter-burst. It is ILLEGAL for non registered companies to sell plates whether for show or not. By LAW companies must confirm proof of identity AND entitlement before producing plates. Any plate site can put whatever they want on THEIR website, it doesn't make it law. If they swore black was white would you believe them? Trust me on this, I do happen to know what I'm on about here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 http://www.demonplates.com/plates/car-show-plates.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Just in case you miss the bit at the bottom- 'From the 1st November 2008, the manufacture of 'show plates' became illegal. Before this it was illegal for somebody to use 'show plates' on the UK highway. Now it is illegal for any company to manufacture a number plate which displays a VRM (vehicle registration mark) which does not comply with current legislation. We no longer make or sell show plates).' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 If you look at the MyShowPlates contact details on their website they are a business in St Helier Jersey so not covered by UK plate legislation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E5GDM Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Stoney, all I'm saying is it's NOT illegal to buy show plates. & nothing you've mentioned or linked to has proved other wise. There's plenty of them around in shows & dealerships all over the country, & the only time an owner would get in trouble is using them on the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 It is illegal for UK companies to sell show plates. It is not illegal for non UK companies to sell them (point conceded) however as they are not sold via a licenced UK company it therefore makes using said plates (whether off road or not) illegal. You are relying on a technicality outside UK legislation. Even if a non UK company supplies plates that are identical in every detail to road legal UK plates is is illegal for you to use them. In order to fit plates to your car they MUST be supplied by a UK company that is registered with and are licenced by DVLA. That company MUST verify ID of the purchaser (whether by Licence or Passport etc) and entitlement to posess said VRN by verification of a valid V5C pertaining to the vehicle for which they are intended. If a UK based company do not have the licence and/or do not carry out legal checks and/or do not retain the records for a minimum 3 years then they may be liable to scrutiny by DVLA at any time and will be prosecuted for every infringement. Just because a plate supplier is outside the UK legal system it DOES NOT mean you can legally use them. Sure you can buy illegal plates and hang them on your wall (all they are fit for) but as soon as you apply them to your vehicle you are committing an offence. Often you will see Artic Drivers with plates depicting their nicknames etc displayed in their windows, technically this is also an offence but latitude is often applied as they are not positioned in such a way as to obscure a legal VRN or imply that they are the actual VRN of the vehicle. P.s, posting pictures of police marked cars (incidentally only made up as a PR stunt and those vehicles had not even been issued with an UK VRN at the time of photography so were therefore not yet street legal) doesn't make a valid case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E5GDM Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 The photos of the police cars aren'tt trying to make a case, they are actually proof that it is totally legal to buy (as you have now conceded) & to attach show plates on to your car when it is not being used on the public highway. Indeed your last sentence backs that point up by stating the police cars weren't even street legal, so therefore they must have been photographed off of the public highway which is why the show plates could then be used legally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laumk7 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Blimey! What have I started when I mentioned show plates? I'm inclined to believe Stoney, being a copper, knows what he's talking about on this one ;) and consider myself reeducated on the matter Changing the subject, my point of registration is going to be when I collect the car isn't it, or a couple weeks before? How can you get a licence plate for a 15 plate car this early on (private registrations aside)? Sent from my iPad using Ford OC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E5GDM Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 laumk7, I know the answer to that to, but as you're 'inclined to believe Stoney because he's a copper' & not me (despite him concededing once to me so far),I'll leave him to 'educate' you. But for the record, despite what Stoney says I'm still stating there is nothing at all illegal about fitting show plates to a vehicle that's not being used on the public high way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laumk7 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 laumk7, I know the answer to that to, but as you're 'inclined to believe Stoney because he's a copper' & not me (despite him concededing once to me so far),I'll leave him to 'educate' you. Oh good grief! How childish? Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 The photos of the police cars aren'tt trying to make a case, they are actually proof that it is totally legal to buy (as you have now conceded) & to attach show plates on to your car when it is not being used on the public highway. Indeed your last sentence backs that point up by stating the police cars weren't even street legal, so therefore they must have been photographed off of the public highway which is why the show plates could then be used legally. You are twisting the facts to suit your argument. I did not state that it was legal to buy, neither did I concede that it is legal to attach show plates to your car. My posts stated that 1/ It is not illegal to buy show plates from non UK suppliers however attaching them to a registered vehicle in the UK is. 2/ It is illegal for an UK company to offer show plates for sale (as per current laws). 3/ The example of plates shown on your rather pointed (and TBH rather childish by depicting Police vehicles) examples are not valid as the vehicles were yet to be licenced as UK street legal and so not having an UK registration assigned to them at the time the photos were taken. 4/ If a vehicle has yet to be assigned a DVLA issued registration it can not be driven on Uk streets (the only exception is vehicles still 'in trade' and as such must be driven with a trade plate displayed so as to be covered under group insurance and display some form of identifier so that Police can acertain who is responsible for the vehicle), If a vehicle has not been assigned a DVLA issued VRN they can only be driven on private land and in such a situation a show plate of sorts is acceptable and normal. To sum up this debate with facts- 1/ Show plates,no matter what route they took to come into your possession, are categorically and unarguably ILLEGAL. 2/ For any UK DVLA registered number plate supplier (RNPS) Plate manufacturer to produce and supply show plates of any description is ILLEGAL. 3/ To buy show plates from any country other than the UK is NOT ILLEGAL, however the application of such plates to an UK registered vehicle whether on public roads OR private roads is ILLEGAL. 4/ To buy plates from a non UK source even if they are identical to UK legal plates is not illegal, however applying them to an UK licenced vehicle if they have not been produced by an UK supplier licenced by DVLA is ILLEGAL however it would take a VERY KEEN Traffic Officer to spot and persue this offence (but never say never). 5/ UK licenced (RNPS) plate manufacturers MUST verify valid ID and a relevant V5C in order to produce plates and the record of such transactions MUST be retained for 3 years in case of DVLA scrutiny or else they will have ILLEGALLY issued a plate and in such a situation it will be ILLEGAL for you to fit these plates to your UK registered vehicle. 6/ These legislations were brought into law to stop (or at least drastically reduce) car cloning, bilking, speeding fine avoidance, car tax avoidance, congestion charge avoidance - and to a certain degree - proliferation of terrorism , so are not solely to be killjoys towards car modifiers and people who like to show their cars at meets (however unfair it may appear). To argue otherwise is futile as these points are FACT and merely gainsaying in order to proliferate the debate is of no merit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Blimey! What have I started when I mentioned show plates? I'm inclined to believe Stoney, being a copper, knows what he's talking about on this one ;) and consider myself reeducated on the matter You are wise to be inclined towards my statements as they are FACT. I merely get frustrated as to how many posts pop up on forums debating legislation concerning show plates while remaining ignorant of the law. Unfortunately blind insistence on being right without a shred of evidence to support their argument does not constitute fact. I do apologise if we hijacked your thread however the gauntlet was thrown down and I would be remiss if I did not set records straight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 So as to answer your original question concerning spacing and displaying legislation please view this PDF as issued by DVLA themselves- INF104_160914.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laumk7 Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Ahh it's not my thread hun it's grandslam's but I admit being first to raise show plates on the thread. As said though I consider myself properly reeducated by your facts backed up by A being a copper and knowing your stuff re the law and B backing your argument up with fact and dvla / government links Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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