Police Christmas party fundraiser...

[ekjdm14]

Seems like it's that time of the year again where the local constabulary are looking to pull in extra cash for the "office party". Was pulled over today by a police bike, "reason for the stop" was that our registration plates are apparently illegal (and exhaust supposedly very loud too). Indeed when measured the letters are thinner than specified, by a WHOPPING 3.5mm (for reference, a discrepancy of less than 10% & of no detriment to the plates being easily readable unlike many I see with dodgy spacing/fonts or tinted).

These plates have been on the car pretty much the whole time we've owned it, have never been brought up at MoT time, and never been called as a problem when we've been pulled previously.

Don't get me wrong, incorrect is incorrect and the letters are too thin but what I take issue with is 1, how did this officer notice a difference of 3.5mm in the letters from a distance of 100ft when we passed him camped up on a roundabout? IMO this makes the stop unlawful because there's no way he did.
2, if it's such a major issue & so obvious then why not deal with it the previous time we were stopped OR how did 4 or 5 different MoT testers over the years not catch it?
and finally, considering how small a discrepancy & the fact that it's plainly not an attempt to obscure the true VRN from anyone/ANPR etc wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask that the plates are rectified in order to prevent future issues than to simply hand out a £100 fine (I'm hoping that's just the one, and not £100 for each plate!)?

All this guy has done is tarnish the reputation of the police even more in my eyes (I didn't exactly have a glowing opinion of them to begin with, but the traffic side at least were serving a purpose by & large) and make a skint family potentially £200 further into the red before December even hits us...

For the record, first words out of it's mouth hole after giving the supposed "reason" for stopping us were "turn your wheels full lock I want to check your tracking on the inner edge" (I assume he meant check your tyres for wear on the inner edge due to tracking) and also wobbled on about how the exhaust is "obscenely loud"... It's a Fxcking XUD automatic with a standard system just with a large slash cut stainless tip! Also fine at MoT last month! Anyway, he declined to get the decibel meter out (I wonder why?) and decided to pig off after another bike just as soon as he was done picking the car apart any way he could in search of any extra shekels he could shake out of us. Personally, my opinion, he only followed us because it's an old car & MAYBE noticed the plates were "off" whilst behind us (personally I think he was just going to go with "your exhaust was loud" until he walked closer and noticed them).

Hopefully rant over now, but be careful out there this time of year to make sure your car is "whiter than white" because they're obviously out to make a quick buck this time of year. Oink. (for the record, not all police are of the porcine variety, but I would suggest that "ACAB until proven otherwise").

[PaulC5]

Pity you did not change the plates to legal ones when you bought the car.
Often adhoc stops like this find criminals, fortunately you are not one.

[ekjdm14]

Pity you did not change the plates to legal ones when you bought the car.

Pity? I would've done if I'd noticed them myself! Thankfully I already had a rear one from the trailer so just need to get the front one now (£18 from Halfords shortly with any luck...)

They may often find criminals, but in this case I may as well have been en route to rob a bank because we got shafted anyhow. The point I'm making is, any other time of year nobody noticed the discrepancy...