Clampdown on illegal number plates

If your number plate doesn’t conform to the DVLA’s strict legal requirements, then now is the time to put it right. Police forces all over the country are clamping down on illegal plates. If you’re caught with an illegal plate you could be fined up to £1000. It’s just not worth the risk.

Even if you think your plate is legal, it’s worth double checking to make sure your plates actually do abide by the DVLA’s criteria.

Your plate must be reflective. The front plate must have black characters on a white background, and the rear plate must have black characters on a yellow background. The only font you can use is the standard ‘Charles Wright’ font. Any other typeface is illegal. You cannot use italics or adapt the font in any way. You mustn’t have fixing or bolts that alter the spacing of the characters on your plate or that make a character look like another character, so for example you can’t insert a bolt in the middle of a 0 to make it look more like a B.

Even if your plate conforms to all these regulations, you also must make sure that it is clean, as it is also illegal to have an illegible number plates, so make sure you give your number plates a wipe over once in a while or you could be fined for having a dirty number plate.

Photo credit: West Midlands Police / Foter / CC BY-SA