Police

Was pulled over on my way home from Midnight Mass, 00.40 on Christmas morning.

Policeman told me off for my German plates.. had to have them changed.  They look rubbish now, they really do.  The German plates just made the car.

I knew it'd happen one day though, it was just a matter of how long!  A mate has been running them on his van for over a year without any trouble at all.  That his van is LHD helps though.  The Policeman actually thought mine was German to start with.. plonker lol.

I've got to get the new ones checked by an MOT centre now, then send off a form.. hmmph.  There's no fine or points or anything though, which is good news.

Tada

take it to the mot shop,send form off,put german plates on,if they stop you again,tell them to go find drug dealers  :wink:
You b ok
Bert

I had a similar encounter over number plates, first time I got a warning second time I got a fine - ?30 plus the hassle of getting a mot station to check it etc. All this for a small plate on the front. funny enough on another car which I ran with no front plate  I never had a problem

I thought about getting German style plates on mine when I ordered tghe private plates, I changed my miind though as I figured why give plod another excuse to stop me? Lord knows they have enough already.

Tian 8)

I like the look of German plates too. They've been debated a million times on CGTI, etc. Suffice to say, they are illegal so if you're actually caught with them, you're going to have to take the punishment.

The reason they are so hot on them is that, the plates are quite legible to the ANPR and speed cameras, etc, they read the digits perfectly fine. But - because it has the spacing/D country identifier/foreign font, the ANPR machine automatically assumes its a foreign car, so it doesn't process your speeding/red light/etc ticket for you.

A little known fact is that the German font used on their plates, was specifically designed to be machine-readable.

Too much information!

Tian 8O

Never ben stopped with mine, guess i'm just lucky

Tian said

Too much information!

Tian 8O

Is it not supposed to be public info, that the ANPR system bins the German plates? Oops! The cat's out of the bag now!

so you could keep a proper set in the car, put on the deutche platten(?) if u get tugged say oh my god i forgot to change them back after the show…ill do it now officer

do those cameras really not process foreign plates??

cabriaulait said

do those cameras really not process foreign plates??

Apparently so, the evidence was based in a letter to "The Golf" magazine a while back. A police chief contacted the owner of www.dubmeister.co.uk and told him, he then wrote a letter to the magazine and it got published.

I'm not going to try it though - UK plates on UK roads for me, if I go to a show I can swap the plates. Do we have a willing guinea-pig though?

Even if the cameras could pick up foreign plated vehicles they can't be pursued as other countries are unwilling to supply driver info.  I think it was in the papers a couple of days ago that the Governemt are now willing to give foreign authorities UK drivers' info if the are caught speeding abroad.  They will also be able to get your info if you've received a parking ticket.  So it looks like we're stuffed at home and abroad then!

Paul, good info, thanks a lot  8)

Maybe when it gets to show season I'll pop them back on - as long as I'm polite and have the spares in the car, a reasonable police(wo)man shouldn't mind, should (s)he..

Although this summer I'll be working in Europe - hopefully in Germany, and I don't think I'll risk German plates over there

the plates have to have the BS 147D (think its that or simmilar) stamped on them and correct british type size font 90mm high i think, i have the german plates on my sportline but they dont have the "D" symbol (stops anti german people smashing my car up when we lose at football to them!) and i have the british type letters and number font, got em from dubmeister, the plates still look far better than plastic ones, as for the ANPR system IT DOES read foreign plates, but as has been said they get discarded, but if it noted the car is british registered your getting the ticket!!! however if you was to register your car with a relative in France for instance :wink:  you can have a foreign plate not pay road tax and only have to go to the country of registration once a year to maintain "foreign"  status!!!!!! and to get the auto test done every 2 years, big loophole nobody much is using yet :wink: most police do have better things to do but obviously you have to accept if you do get stopped you may? get a ticket or VDRS to change the plate over :dontknow:

Orange, have you got a photo of your plates?  I can't imagine them.  Are they pressed metal with British font?

ive got german plates and never get any speeding tickets, police hassle or parking fines when in the UK. then again, i have a german registered car

i love to park wherever i want and brush away the tickets. muahahaha!

lol - are you actually from Germany, or is it for that very reason that you register it over there?

drochesaunders said

Orange, have you got a photo of your plates?  I can't imagine them.  Are they pressed metal with British font?

here they are, look "standard" but with more style 8)


and the rear one has the vw dubmeister plate hanger surround, my VR6 has wolfsburg plate hangers which are very nice too no drill holes and tidys the back up

Very nice mate  8)

if you tilt the correct uk plates to an angle of so many degrees above vertical, the speed cams flash blurs the reflection and they cant read it! 8)  :wink:

But surely the cameras are of different heights, therefore making this impossible to work for all cameras?