Friday afternoon.
M40, Birmingham-bound.
Buckinghamshire.
It’s not often I see a need for new legislation but this requirement is long overdue…
Vehicle registration plates.
I find that I’m seeing an increasing number of vehicle registration plates that have been tampered with to make them look like something they’re not.
Like right now.
I’m following an Audi on the M40.
I have +20/20 vision.
I am 30 metres behind it.
The registration number on the plate of the Audi is – quite plainly – HOTT X.
I know that this registration number has been manipulated because HOTT X is not a valid registration number.
I close to 20 metres.
It still only says HOTT X.
Traffic slows and bunches up because there’s a jam at an exit ramp so I close to ten metres.
Nope, it still reads as HOTT X – but I can see there’s something after the ‘H’ on the registration plate.
Traffic slows to a crawl so I pull up to five metres.
Guess what?
From this distance I can see that the actual registration number is H17 TTX.
The owner has manipulated it by inserting a black ‘.’ next to the ‘1’ and the ‘7’ has been straightened and placed next to the ‘H1.’ to make it look like ‘]’.
Then the ‘X’ has been extra-spaced away from the first part of the registration detail.
So in ASCII it looks like this: HI]TT X.
I’m not being a killjoy in calling for legislation to stop this from happening, my reasoning is simple.
If the car in front of me was involved in a hit and run accident no-one would have a clue as to its real identity.
So come on you nanny Conservative New Labour politicians.
Isn’t it about time you got off your collective arses and did something useful, something that would actually benefit the public for a change?
Stop people from screwing around with their vehicle registration plates.