5:42pm Thursday 19th July 2007
By Matt Wilkinson
Almost one motorist was caught every day driving with an illegal or altered registration plate during an operation in Oxfordshire.
Moving the distance of letters and numbers on number plates to spell new words often means police or witnesses cannot read the real registration following a crash or a crime.
During May, police fined 24 drivers in the county for having illegal plates. Across Thames Valley, traffic police prosecuted 99 motorists during the same month.
Pc Peter Hare said many drivers were unaware they could be fined if they altered the registration.
He said: "Messing around with a number plate is quite fashionable at the moment."
Number plates must conform to DVLA regulations.
Sometimes police fail to spot the real registration plate during Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) operations if they have been altered to spell names or dates of birth.
It means many drivers without an MOT, licence, insurance or wanted criminals could slip through the net.
Number plates must conform to DVLA regulations to allow police, other enforcement agencies and members of the public to be able to identify vehicles involved in collisions and other motoring offences.
All 24 drivers in Oxfordshire were given a £30 fixed penalty notice but fines for altering or driving with illegal number plates can reach £1,000.
Last year police handed out hundreds of one-way screws to motorists to fix to their licence plates.
The plate snaps if a thief attempts remove it.
Detectives believe registration plates are often stolen by career criminals who use them on 'pool' cars or to escape from petrol stations without paying or being traced.
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