People often search for the perfect personal birthday present to show a loved one they care. Sadie Taylor received her ultimate birthday gift when she turned seventeen.

She explains that the day started off as an anti-climax when her father handed her a birthday card and an unwrapped pair of denims. Feeling a little glum she nevertheless got dressed for the day.

Sadie recalls, “I went downstairs a little later, all groomed and ready to go out. When I went into the kitchen, my dad said that my brother, Joe, had got me a present. Joe gave me a small box, which I opened to find a Mini keying. Jokingly, I said to my dad that all I needed now were the keys to go with it. At that point he reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. By this time my heart was racing and I had butterflies in my stomach!”

When Sadie’s father took her out to the garage, she found her dream car, a black Mini Cooper. However the icing on the cake was the personalised number plate, SAD 11E. Sadie was so delighted, all she could say was, “ It has my name on it!”

Even now Sadie still gets excited about her registration, “Me with a black Mini Cooper was my dream come true. At only 5′ 1”, a Mini fits me perfectly and I became the envy of all my friends. Now, after about a year of owning my ‘baby’ and my number plate, I still get a rush each time I put my seatbelt on. And I don’t know how but everyone knows my name!”

read comments (0)

Personalised number plates are an ideal way to recognise or celebrate the people or things that you love. Jago Mead’s passion is snooker, having been a fan of the sport for thirty years. He attributes his dedication to watching Terry Griffiths win the World Championships back in 1979.

Jago began playing snooker several years later and became so dedicated to his newfound hobby that he walked six miles to the snooker club every Saturday and would spend his pocket money on playing his favourite game.

He recalls, “I would wait about an hour for the table, play for an hour and then walk home again.”

His passion has continued and even influenced his brother’s love of the game. Jago said, “My brother, Ralph, also became interested in snooker and when we were both working, we would play on a regular basis, sometimes three times a week.” He continued, “Our games have come on leaps and bounds. I achieved my first century (a score of 108) about five years ago and I continue to love playing the game.”

Jago Mead admits that he always thought that private number plates were pretentious and never considered buying one. However, that all changed when he purchased his Mini and discovered the plate SN03 KER. He felt that it would be the ultimate recognition of the sport, which has shaped his life.

“The plate, SN03 KER, combined my love for snooker and my Mini, so I felt I just had to have it. Fortunately, I was able to afford it and I’m happy as it’s unlikely to go down in value.”

read comments (0)

Registration plates are cancelled when the vehicle they are assigned to is scrapped, this includes any car that is destroyed or broken up for spares. It is not possible to transfer the registration plate from a scrapped vehicle. The people responsible for scrapping the vehicle have a responsibility to inform the DVLA and must return the V5 registration document relating to the vehicle.

With regards to vehicles that are written off, something that happens when a vehicle is damaged beyond economic repair, the insurance company agree to pay a sum to the owner of the vehicle and ownership passes to the insurance company. It is then the decision of the company whether they choose to scrap the vehicle or sell it on to someone who may choose to pay the money for the repairs. If you wish to retain the registration number of a written off vehicle, you would have to transfer it to another vehicle or obtain a retention certificate. If you do not take these steps you likely lose the registration plate.

Another consideration is stolen vehicles, which are never recovered. If you find yourself in this situation, you may be able to have the registration number re-assigned as long as the theft was reported to the police and the DVLA have had a record of the incident for at least 12 months. The stolen vehicle must also have had a valid MOT certificate, if applicable and tax disc, at the time of the theft. You will also need permission from your insurance company, since they would have the rightful ownership of the vehicle if it were to be recovered.

read comments (0)

The type of car you drive has always been a guide on your status and standing with prestigious cars like Aston Martin, Bentley and Rolls Royce often showing large amounts of wealth. A few decades ago you would rarely see such cars however some of the most prestigious models can be seen quite often parked on the high street.

Footballers especially are frequently spotted in the top of the range Mercedes, BMW or Audi but then it’s another level of wealth that get to drive the dream in cars such as the Bugatti Veyron or the Ferrari Enzo.

If you like your cars with high standards of style and a European taste its worth while checking out left hand drive vehicles as many cars produced on the continent come with much higher specifications and those built in left hand drive cars London are much cheaper than right hand drive vehicles, meaning you can splash out on extra features to complete your driving experience.

There are only a few places where you can get such a vehicle and unsurprisingly it’s in the capital where driving a supercar is the norm, if you visit a left hand drive vehicle London dealership you will receive a personal and private service with a wide choice of exquisite vehicles to choose from. Purchasing from such a specialist in left hand drive you can rest assured all requirements will be met so it leaves nothing for you to worry about.

read comments (0)

Registration marks were first introduced in 1903 and they have since undergone several changes in format. However, they usually contain between one and three letters and up to four digits, with the digits following the letter combination or vice versa. Prior to the introduction of the suffix registration format in 1963, registration marks had no age identifying letters or numbers. It is therefore difficult to determine the age of a vehicle that carries one of these marks. Suffix registrations are age identifiable by their suffix letter. Similarly the prefix letter on a registration plate identifies the year of manufacture. New style registrations use the two-digit number to identify the age of the vehicle.

Suffix, prefix and new style registrations can only be assigned to vehicles of the same age or older. However, dateless registrations do not carry age identifying letters or digits and can therefore be assigned to any vehicle, irrespective of its age.

Dateless registration marks can be more difficult to come by, because they were issued prior to 1963 and the vehicles they were originally assigned to have often been scrapped. If you do obtain a dateless registration, it is likely it will be one of only a few similar registration marks on the road today. This means that they are often extremely sought after, even if they do not contain commonly used initials. Depending on the letters and digits involved, they can potentially be worth a lot of money.

read comments (0)

The Spanish registration plate system has experienced many changes, with the most recent coming into force in September 2000.

Until the start of the 1970s, number plates in Spain consisted purely of a province code followed by a series of digits. Some vehicles carrying these marks can still be seen on the country’s roads today. This system became exhausted when the cities of Madrid and Barcelona both ran out of digit combinations.

The system that followed took the form of two letters, followed by four numbers, with a one or two letter suffix combination. As with the old format, the first two letters denote the province code, while the four digit number exists purely to differentiate between cars with the same province code and suffix combination.

Province codes usually follow a particular format by taking the first two letters of the province, following the regulations introduced in 1926. Province code problems began to surface when registered keepers travelled to other areas of the country, due to rivalries between regions. As this system neared its end, Madrid and Barcelona were, once again, running out of combinations.

The key change with the introduction of new system is that it is no longer province specific and is, instead, uniform across the whole country. The new number plates follow the format of four digits followed by three letters. There are, however, some letters that are not used, these being A, E, I, O, Q, U and Ñ. The numbers run from 0000 to 9999 and while the letters give no indication of where the vehicle was registered, they may give some indication as to the age of the vehicle.

read comments (0)

Trev Smeaton has long been a private registration enthusiast, having purchased his first one over ten years ago. He bought the plate, E22 BEV, for his wife Bev and was so excited by his purchase that he wrapped it in a Toblerone shaped parcel for her.

Smeaton explained, “It was quite a surprise for her. The plates now sit on a little MG and they look great.”

Of course, after treating his wife, he decided it was time to look for something for himself. He decided to buy himself a present for his 38th birthday and that the ideal gift would be the registration plate, 38 TS. He still uses the plate to this day and recalls, “From the first day it was put on a vehicle it seemed to attract a lot of attention.”

However, his love of personalised registrations didn’t stop there. He decided to buy one for his father, who had long been known by the nickname ‘Smeat’. The registration S17 EAT seemed like the perfect choice.

Trev has since purchased another plate for the family car. This time he opted for T12 EVS. Trev explains, “It’s on out family car. A Jeep that’s mostly driven by Bev. When she asked why I had bought another plate with my name on it, the answer was simple, it’s Trev’s wife driving Trev’s car!” However, he admits that this plate was not quite as popular with his wife as her own plate was.

In the future, Smeaton plans to extend his collection of private registrations with dedications to his children, Hayley and Jamie.

read comments (0)

Most UK vehicle registrations follow a specific format; there are, however, some exceptions. One is for military vehicles, which have followed their own alphanumerical format since 1949. Armed forces plates have either two numbers followed by two letters suffixed by a further two numbers, or for vehicles registered from 1995 onwards, they follow the format of two letters followed by two digits suffixed by two letters. Between 1949 and 1982 the two letters acted as either an indicator for the branch of the services that the vehicle belonged to or the category of the vehicle.

Most armed forces registration plates are black with white or silver characters. The registration mark can be displayed in a variety of ways, across one, two or three rows.

Another exception to the standard registration mark is for trade plates. Motor traders and vehicle testers as assigned trade licences, which allow them to drive unlicensed vehicles on public roads while abiding by certain restrictions. Trade plates can be used, temporarily, on any vehicle and are used to identify the person rather than the vehicle. Since 1970 these plates have consisted of red lettering on a white background. They take the format of three numbers followed by between one and three letters.

Diplomatic plates also follow their own specific format. Vehicles operated by High Commissions, foreign embassies, consular staff and many other international organisations use them. The plates on these vehicles consists of three digits, one letter and a further three digits. The letter is either a D for diplomatic staff or X for accredited non-diplomatic staff. The first three digits act as an identifier of the country or organisation, while the final three digits act as a code, dependent on the role of the operator.

read comments (0)

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) has been in operation throughout the United Kingdom’s CCTV network for several years. This technology is used on motorways, busy roads and petrol station forecourts.

All of the information collected from the ANPR cameras is stored at the National ANPR Data Centre, which is based alongside the Police National Computer, at Hendon, in North London. Details of every vehicle recorded by an ANPR camera are stored on the database for five years. This includes the exact date, time and location of the vehicle.

These records are crosschecked against the Police National Computer for sightings of any vehicle that is of interest to the police in connection with known or suspected involvement in criminal behaviour. The data can also be used to identify vehicles that are being driven without valid insurance, road tax or MOT certificate.

The National ANPR Data Centre has the facilities to data mine. This means that software can trawl through all the data collected from the cameras to identify any patterns that are of interest. This software can produce intelligence based on the movements of a specific vehicle or it can locate cloned vehicles by identifying an impossibly rapid journey.

The Chief Constable of Hertfordshire, Frank Whiteley, is the national lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers ANPR Steering Group. Speaking on the subject of ANPR, he said, “We can use ANPR on investigations or we can use it in a proactive, intelligence way. Things like building up the lifestyle of criminals, where they are going to be at certain times. We seek to link the criminal to the vehicle through intelligence. Vehicles moving on the roads are open to police scrutiny at any time. The Road Traffic Act gives us the right to stop vehicles at any time for any purpose.”

read comments (0)

The laws covering UK number plates has been constantly evolving since being introduced, mainly to stop criminal activity regarding stolen or fake plates and to cope with the ever increasing cars on the road.

Back in 1903 when they were introduced, registration numbers were based solely on location and followed the style “A 1″ through to “YY 9999″. This continued until 1932 when the numbers began to run out as the popularity of cars increased although the new format still used location. The new number plates used the sytem of “A A A 1″ to “YYY 999″, excluding the letters I, Q and Z. There were also some three letter combinations that were never issued – for instance, the last two letters of the Great Yarmouth registration was “EX” but plates issued in this region were never allowed to use “SEX”, which resulted in many droll headlines such as “No Sex for Great Yarmouth Motorists.” In 1963, when the numbers were once again on the verge of running out, an additional letter was added on to the end of plates all around the country, which corresponded to the year that the car was registered.

The next change came in 1973, but this was a change of style rather than a change of format. Previously, number plates were either white on black or silver on black, and were made from pressed metal or plastic characters attached to the metal plate. No laws were in place regarding size, font or gap between characters but this all changed in the beginning of 1973. From then on, characters on number plates had to be 89mm by 64mm or 79 by 57mm. The gaps between characters were also standardised to be 13mm with the larger characters and 11mm with the smaller.

The next change was once again to the format and saw the letter that identified the year being moved from the end of the registration to the beginning. This format remained in place until September 2001 when the current style of plate introduced a two-letter area code, followed by a two-number year code, followed by three random letters. The reasoning behind this was that the first four characters would be easy to remember and would allow police to drastically reduce the number of potential vehicles involved in a crime if witnesses could remember just the first four digits, or even just the first two. It also meant that second-hand buyers could have some clue as to the age of the car, and solved the problem of numbers running out until 2051.

To ensure that all format and style regulations are observed, every supplier of number plates must be registered with the DVLA, and the name and postcode of the supplier is displayed on every license plate they make and issue. Those buying registration plates must also supply proof of identity, as well as the documentation to show the number plate is theirs. Suppliers must also keep records of all of the above information and make those records available to the police when required.

read comments (0)