Illegally spaced number plate

Anyway...

I also got pulled years back. At the time I had researched what was legal and what was not, and I knew exactly what I was doing. The officer picked on a part of the plate that was actually legal that "he didn't like", and completely ignored the illegal part. He gave me the opportunity to change the plate though and I couldn't really argue as the plate was illegal even if not because of the bit he didn't like.

Since then I have kept the font and spacing legal apart from the fact that since they are old enough I get "show" plates made up which use the old style font. If I do ever get pulled then "I had them made up years ago" as it is legal to have the old font on old plates, whereas new plates should have the current font.

I would welcome the opportunity to reduce the spacing, and I do not think this would affect the ability of ANPR as it can differentiate between letters spaced at 11mm apart anyway, so why the need for the 33mm gap? As long as none of the spacing is less than 11mm then ANPR should have no problems whatsoever.

Any more news on this one?
I can't find anything on the web about the misspaceing of number plates law changing

I may or may not be planning on moving the second number over to the right three letters, to spell a 4 letter word & was concerned about getting pulled over by the police.

(10-07-2012 08:55pm)Kentboy Wrote:  Anyone been pulled for an illegally spaced number plate?

I havn't but then mine isn't. I did get pulled once in the MG Van for tints on the front windows by VOSA. The guy did say shame really as it looked really good. Removed them & tried to make an appointment at VOSA Gillingham, no-one answered the phone & never eard any more.

Often hear on Traffic Cops etc about illegal plates though I often wonder how many folk actually get away with it!!

It's only yet another money making excercise because the cameras can't read them hence why many nice fonts have dissapeared. Odd thing is that an illegal number plate is easier for a human to remember if a crime was committed = but I guess that doesn't raise money!

DVLA are hypocrytical as they say if a number is misplaced/misrepresented they can seize it back yet on their website they try & make up possible names from numbers = Double standards if you ask me but then they are a Government agency!

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(11-07-2012 08:45am)speary Wrote:  I believe that the DVLA will shortly be relaxing the rules on number/letter spacing on UK number plates to allow us to make words etc. Part of the reasoning is that the DVLA will generate more revenue as they can sell more private plates that make words

Took them long enough to work that out lol.

(12-07-2012 08:41pm)smayo Wrote:  Anyway...

I also got pulled years back. At the time I had researched what was legal and what was not, and I knew exactly what I was doing. The officer picked on a part of the plate that was actually legal that "he didn't like", and completely ignored the illegal part. He gave me the opportunity to change the plate though and I couldn't really argue as the plate was illegal even if not because of the bit he didn't like.

Since then I have kept the font and spacing legal apart from the fact that since they are old enough I get "show" plates made up which use the old style font. If I do ever get pulled then "I had them made up years ago" as it is legal to have the old font on old plates, whereas new plates should have the current font.

I would welcome the opportunity to reduce the spacing, and I do not think this would affect the ability of ANPR as it can differentiate between letters spaced at 11mm apart anyway, so why the need for the 33mm gap? As long as none of the spacing is less than 11mm then ANPR should have no problems whatsoever.

Does anyone actually know how anpr cameras work? For example if they work by employing some sort of optical character recognition then surely spacing should make no difference to the recognition of the letters?! And since the order of the letters and numbers will always be in the correct order, the font and its size will be the important attributes I would have thought as these characteristics would have been calibrated into the camera and software for recognition. So different cameras in different countries would be set to read different fonts. Illegal yes because the law specifies so but I don't see why the position of the spacing should have such an impact on such high technology.

I don't see how else they could work other than Optical character recognition, and this tech has come on a long way with modern computing power, I wouldn't be surprised if the spacing is built into the understanding of the ANPR cameras software though , it shouldn't be since some numbers are unusual spacing due to having less letters etc etc.

Having just gone through the process of taking my private plate off my car and putting a standard plate on it the DVLA sent me this link which gives all the info about what you can/ cannot do. It also has a useful table that tells you which UK regions the first two letters of the current plates are related to. http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/...067666.pdf

(11-07-2012 08:45am)speary Wrote:  I believe that the DVLA will shortly be relaxing the rules on number/letter spacing on UK number plates to allow us to make words etc. Part of the reasoning is that the DVLA will generate more revenue as they can sell more private plates that make words

Speary,
How did you hear about this, it's been nearly a year since your post & the DVLA rules (some say its just a guide
) are still the same.

These are the current regulations on plates:-

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/...561_en.pdf

(27-09-2013 09:37am)Shenley Wrote:  These are the current regulations on plates:-

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/...561_en.pdf

Thanks for this, I have read though it & now my head hurts

So the DVLA have no plans on relaxing the number/letter spacing regulations ?
Ie. from say AB12 ABC, too AB1 2ABC or any other grouping.

Why would they want to do that? Their thick ANPR computers would never be able to decode numberplates if they did!