Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

A private firm engaged by the Delhi government in 2012 to manufacture high security numberplates for city vehicles has been fined by the Delhi high court for "forum hunting."
HC on Thursday slapped a cost of Rs 50,000 on Rosemerta HSRP Ventures for trying to secure a favourable order from a different bench since the earlier judge had ruled against it.

"This court is also of the prima facie view that the present petition lacks bonafides; any clarification as to the order passed by this court on October 7, 2016 ought to have been obtained by filing an application in the disposed of appeal. However, it appears that the endeavour of Rosmerta was to avoid approaching the bench concerned by way of a clarification and it does appear that this is a case of forum hunting," Justice Vibhu Bakhru observed while imposing punitive costs.

Last year, a bench of Justice S Muralidhar had lifted a stay on Delhi government's transport department to go ahead with its termination of agreement with Rosmerta, even as it had clarified that the firm should be granted a hearing first by an authority higher than the transport commissioner who first took the decision to terminate its services.

However, Rosmerta came to court again claiming that Delhi government has asked it to appear before the chief secretary though it is the lieutenant governor who should hear its appeal, a contention rejected not just by the LG but also by Justice Bakhru.

Last year, SC had also paved the way for AAP government to end its contract with the controversial private firm that manufactures high security numberplates in Delhi.
Delhi government and Rosmerta have been locked in arbitration since 2014 after the government issued a show-cause notice to the firm, accusing it of several violations and irregularities in the execution of the high security numberplate project. This led the company to invoke an in-built arbitration clause in the agreement.

HC held that even as per the NCT Act and Rules, the chief secretary would be the secretary to the council of ministers and principal secretary, general administration department will be the joint secretary to the council.

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The UK's most expensive number plate to date is the F1 registration number purchased by a British businessman for £440,625 in 2008, though that's just small change compared to the £7m spent by Abu Dhabi-based Saeed Khouri on the 1 number plate - officially the largest sum of money ever spent on a registration number.

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A Statutory Off Road Notification is a declaration made by the registered owner of a vehicle that they are removing their car from the public highway.

By doing this, the person will no longer need to pay road tax, as the notification tells the DVLA that a vehicle is registered but not currently being used.

Those who have their insurance and road tax expire and don’t want to renew them may find it makes more sense to declare a SORN instead.

When do I have to make a SORN?
If one of the following situations applies to your vehicle you will need to declare a Statutory Off Road Notification:

You haven’t paid tax for your vehicle
You haven’t paid insurance for your vehicle
You want to break a vehicle down for parts before scrapping it
You purchase or receive a vehicle and don’t want to put it on the road
If you’ve sold a vehicle and been sent a V11 reminder letter, you won’t need to make a SORN, as you’ll receive a confirmation that you no longer have the vehicle within 4 weeks of informing DVLA you’ve sold it.

How do I declare a SORN?
People wanting to declare a Statutory Off Road Notification can go to the DVLA website to fill out the necessary details.

You will receive a refund for any full months of remaining tax, and won’t be able to use the vehicle on the road until you tax it again.

If you want to start the SORN immediately, use the 11 digit number on your vehicle log book (V5C).

If you want it to begin on the first day of the following month, use the 16-digit number on your vehicle tax reminder letter (V11) - but bear in mind this number can only be used once.

If the vehicle isn’t registered in your name you will need to tell the DVLA it’s off the road by post.

You can also send applications in the mail by filling in the V890 application form, or calling the DVLA vehicle service.

ext week the number plate “TAX 1” is up for auction – with bids expected to reach £100,000 – but anyone buying it might want to think twice.

That's because if your car is stolen or written off, it turns out not only is a personalised number plate not covered by insurance, you might lose it forever.

Personalised plates are getting more popular, with 374,968 auctioned off by the DVLA in 2016/17 alone. And while very few of these will cost more than a few hundred pounds, they might all be at risk.

The problem isn't just that the plates aren't covered, it's that unless you're careful when something happens to the car, they could be gone for good.

“A registration number is attached to the vehicle it is assigned to, not the person who purchased it,” said Matt Oliver from GoCompare Car Insurance.

That means if – for whatever reason – your insurance claims the car, they get the plates too.

A number plate for the Swiss canton of Zug has sold anonymously at auction for CHF233,000 ($253,353), breaking the previous record of CHF161,000.

For now, the buyer of the “ZG 10” plate remains unknown, as the item was sold on Wednesday at an anonymous online auction. Several other car and motorcycle plates were auctioned off at the event, the proceeds of which brought more than CHF500,000 to the treasury of the central Swiss canton.

The previous Swiss number plate auction record was set last March by a buyer who paid CHF160,100 for the privilege of owning the canton Valais registration number “VS 1”.

An Emirati businessman set the world record in 2008, paying 52.2 million dirhams (CHF14.4 million) for a plat displaying only the digit “1”.

A personalised registration plate is, by its very nature, very important to the owner and of special, sentimental value.

My wife and I bought one 10 years ago with a new car. When the dealer showed us the numbers it had available, we jokingly asked if we could get a plate that incorporated both our initials. A quick check with DVLA and, £399 later, we have that plate which is now on its third car.

My younger son has one too, bought for his 21st birthday by grandad as something he would keep the rest of his life.

You assume you will always have the plate, swapping it from vehicle to vehicle, but that may not be the case because it is assigned to a vehicle not the person who bought it.

Rare DVLA number plate TAX 1 – which may appeal to tax experts or taxi firms – is expected to fetch up to £100,000 at auction on Thursday which has prompted GoCompare to warn drivers with personalised plates about the insurance implications.

Personal registration numbers are increasingly popular, starting at £250 from the DVLA which sold 374,968 of them in 2016-17.

But GoCompare car insurance says drivers with a personalised plate risk losing it if the vehicle is stolen or written off.

It analysed 302 comprehensive car insurance policies which revealed only 19 specifically cover the loss of a personalised plate if the car was lost or stolen. The sum insured varied from £200 to unlimited.

When an insurance claim is made for the cost of a car, the insurer owns both the vehicle and the registration number assigned to it, even if it’s a personalised plate. The claimant can buy the registration number from the insurer, if it still owns it, for no more than the settlement price. But, if the vehicle has already been disposed of by the insurer, all rights to the registration plate go with the vehicle.

If a car with a personalised plate is stolen and not recovered, its owner will have to wait 12 months to get the plate back. To reclaim the plate, they will have to prove the car had a valid MOT and tax at the time of theft.

Similarly, motorists who have had a car with a personalised plate written off have to arrange for the number to be transferred to another vehicle or retained on a certificate in sufficient time before the claim is settled. Registration numbers move with the vehicle they are assigned to, not the person who bought it. So, if the vehicle is written off and the car scrapped, the number plate can disappear with it.

The policyholder will need to contact the DVLA and their insurer to let them know that they want to keep the plate. The insurer will then write a letter of non-interest and send it to the DVLA.

Matt Oliver, of GoCompare Car Insurance, said: “When you register a personalised plate to a vehicle you need to tell your insurer immediately, otherwise your policy could be invalidated and, particularly if you’ve paid a lot for a registration number, you should consider whether it’s properly insured.”

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Eric Morecambes Cherished Number Rescued!

Eric Morecambe's 1971 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow has been spared from the scrapheap at the last minute.

Peter Yates, who runs a wedding car firm in Morecambe, spotted the car in a Shrewsbury junkyard just 24 hours before it was due to be dismantled.

He said finding the car - which had the number plate EM100 when Morecambe owned it - was a 'miracle'.

The car was owned by the comic from 1971 and 1974 - as shown by the original order note - and Yates says it still smells of cigar smoke.

How the car came to be in a scrapheap is unknown. Seven years ago the car, including the personalised number plate, sold for £36,000 at auction.

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The state Department of Motor Vehicles has suspended the vehicle registrations of more than 4,900 motorists who crossed New York bridges and tunnels without paying tolls, officials told The Post.

Most of the scofflaws have breezed through new cashless tollbooths — and then ignored repeated bills sent by mail.

But the crackdown has some drivers fuming, with one, Jon Kopel, calling it “Governor Cuomo’s legalized extortion.”

Kopel recently moved from Yonkers to upstate South Fallsburg, and says he never received initial bills for crossing the Tappan Zee and other bridges. He finally received a mailed warning that the DMV would yank his car registration if he didn’t pay $960 for 18 tolls plus violation fees, he said.

Kopel says that when he called the bill collectors, they told him, “We’re going to give you a break — we’ll make it $400 if you pay it now” — so he charged it on his credit card.

“That’s some deal, isn’t it?” he griped.

Tolling agencies now have sharper teeth. Under state regulations that went into effect in January, the DMV can suspend registrations of car owners who refuse to pay the tolls and steep late fees.

“By the time the DMV is done with them, I think they’ll find out the state of New York is not kidding around here,” MTA board member Mitchell Pally told The Post.

“Sooner or later we’re going to get your money or your registration, so you might as well pay.”

To date, the DMV has received 8,262 requests for suspensions from tolling authorities and approved 4,976. Of those, 556 suspensions were sought by the MTA; 499 by the Port Authority, and 3,921 by the Thruway Authority.

The MTA so far has converted seven of its nine city crossings to cashless, with the Throgs Neck and Bronx-Whitestone bridges due in the fall.

The PA’s new Bayonne Bridge and the Thruway Authority’s Tappan Zee Bridge are also cashless.

That means cars and trucks can whiz through without stopping, which saves time for motorists and improves traffic flow.

Vehicles with E-ZPass are charged as usual, but for those without, cameras on overhead gantries photograph license plates. A contractor for the three tolling authorities mails bills to the registered owners, who are responsible for payment no matter who was driving.

Vehicle owners who ignore two bills in a row are hit with penalty fees of $50 or $100. At the Henry Hudson, one-third of motorists without E-ZPass were scofflaws.

Under the new state regulation, the DMV can suspend the registration of motorists who fail to pay three or more toll violations within five years, or for commercial vehicles fail to pay $200 in tolls within five years.

Out-of-state drivers who cross New York bridges and tunnels without paying may soon face the same fate — the DMV is seeking suspension agreements with other agencies.

“If your car is registered in Connecticut, the DMV would take into account what you did in New York,” Pally said.

A BIKER has been caught by police using a James Bond-inspired gadget to conceal his number plate to avoid speed cameras.

Spanish traffic cops pulled over the motorcyclist after they noticed he was riding without a licence plate.

However, on closer inspection, the modified plate was revealed with tech straight from 007’s garage.

The Swiss rider had the ability to flip up his number plate at the press of a button to hide the reg from police or cameras.

A similar gadget was famously seen on Sean Connery’s Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger.

Bond’s number plate could spin to change to a different number to avoid being followed or tracked.

This rider didn’t quite have the same knack for getting out of trouble as 007, though.

As according to a report on the Catalan police website, using the secret gadget led to the motorcyclist’s downfall after cops in Girona noticed the rider didn’t have a licence plate.

They pursued and pulled over the motorcyclist before noticing the number plate had bizarrely re-appeared.

After a quick search, officers found the activation switch to move the plate up and down to dodge speed cameras.

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The 1 CUE cherished Number offers a unique chance to show the world you are at the top of your game' Bruno Morris of Image registrations told us.

Cherished numbers are a great investment and now is the perfect time to start your collection.

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A number plate owner has had their number plate withdrawn by the DVLA after a member of the public complained to police that it spelt 'jihad'.

The Ford Fiesta was driven around with the personalised plate for six months before it was reported to officials.

Licence bosses have now banned the plate which was written JH11 HAD and sent the owner a replacement.

The car was reported after it was spotted driving around Newport, Gwent.

One woman who reported it to police after she saw it being driven in her home city said: "How can this be allowed with everything that is going on in the world at the moment?

"I have told the police about it and they said they would make a note of it.

"Surely this plate cannot be legal?"

A DVLA spokesman said the personalised plate had been bought in October last year and had "slipped through the net" of offensive registrations.

The spokesman said: "We try to identify all combinations that may cause offence, and on the rare occasion where potentially offensive numbers slip through the net, steps are taken to withdraw the number.

"As soon as we became aware of this last week we withdrew it and would have then sent a replacement plate."

Plates resembling the word 'jihad', which literally means striving or struggling in Arabic, and is associated with the concept of 'holy war', are unavailable, for example plates starting with JE and ending HAD.

Others which are banned include HO57 AGE, a close match to "hostage", and the chain of characters O54 MA because of its resemblance to the name Osama.

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In 1989 a lot of these stored old models were registered in advance of legislation that required all new vehicles registered on or after 1 January 1990 to have catalytic converters fitted. This included vehicles held in storage and out of production for several years, in some cases five years or more. By the late 1990s, the range of available numbers was once again starting to run out, exacerbated by a move to biannual changes in registration letters (March and September) in 1999 to smooth out the bulge in registrations every August, so a new scheme needed to be adopted. It was decided to research a system that would be easier for crash or vehicle related crime witnesses to remember and clearer to read, yet still fit within a normal standard plate size.

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