Reminder to Keep your Number Plates Clean

Police are reminding drivers to keep their number plates clean after stopping a car with an “invisible” rear plate.
Dirty number plate on a car.

The seasonal reminder comes as there is more dirt from leaves, mud and grit on the roads.

Richmondshire Neighbourhood Policing Team were alarmed to find one vehicle with a number plate that was so filthy, not a single digit was visible (pictured).

They were on routine patrols when they pulled the vehicle over.

Inspector Martin Metcalfe, of Richmondshire Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “It’s that time of year when we see more and more vehicle registration plates that are totally obscured.

"So this is a gentle reminder to please check your lights and number plates are clean before you set off.”

Drivers can be given a verbal warning and told to wipe their plate clean. But sometimes the digits are so badly obscured that a warning is not appropriate and they are reported for the offence.

Insp Metcalfe added: “This one was totally invisible, and we see others like this too. It’s not crime of the century, I agree. And before anyone says it, yes we do have better things to do!

“I’d rather people kept their plates readable than we had to spend valuable time stopping and dealing with them. But we can’t turn a blind eye if your number plate is this dirty.”

While it is not an offence to have a dirty vehicle, it is an offence to have an obscured registration plate or one that is not easily distinguishable.

There are a few good reasons for this. Firstly, the obvious one is police need to be able to read your plate to check if your insurance, tax and MOT are in order.

Secondly, it could be used in crime, or is much harder to find if it is stolen.

One recent example of this was when a vehicle was taken from the Melsonby area of Richmondshire and as a result of being able to track the registration plate quickly, police recovered the vehicle in the Cleveland area and returned it to the owner.

The maximum penalty for having an obscured registration plate or one that is not easily distinguishable is up to £1,000.

Insp Metcalfe said: “All we’re asking people to do is keep their numberplates clean - it only takes a few seconds before you set off and further checks will be ongoing while we’re on patrol.”

So what are the top selling number plates in the UK? The DVLA has been selling private plates to UK motorists since 1989. During this time, there have been a number of records set, but most of the top 10 have been bought in the past 15 years. Here’s what currently makes the list:

25 0 – A Ferrari dealer bought this for £518k in 2014. It is now on a £10 million Ferrari 250 SWB.
F 1 – A businessman, Afzal Khan, bought this for £440k in 2008 and put it on his McLaren-Mercedes SLR.
S 1 – This was bought in 2008 for £404k by an anonymous buyer.
1 D – Businessman Nabil Bishara bought this plate in 2009 (before One Direction was formed, so it is not a reference to the band) for £352k.
M 1 – Businessman Mike McCoomb bought this number plate in 2006 for £331k, apparently for his son, who was 10 at the time.
VIP 1 – Chelsea owner and businessman Roman Abramovich bought this plate for £285k in 2006.
51 NGH – This number plate, which looks like the surname Singh, was sold in 2006 for £254k.
1 RH – Businessman Robert Haverson bought this in 2006 for £247k.
K1 NGS – This reg plate, which looks like the word “kings”, was bought anonymously in 1993 for £231k.
1 0 – This very simple but striking number plate was bought anonymously in 2009 for £170k.

These are large amounts of money, but they are all small compared to the top-selling number plates found in other parts of the world. Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, has the record for the most expensive number plate ever sold. That number plate was a simple “1”. It was bought in 2008 by businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri for £7.25 million.

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