West Mercia Police in action on 80 drivers over number plates
More than 80 drivers have been dealt with in the past year in the West Mercia region for defective licence plates.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed West Mercia Police recorded action being taken against 84 motorists between October 1 last year and September 30 this year.
Motorists dealt with by police for incorrectly displayed number plates can be fined up to £1,000 and vehicles will fail their MOT test.
Of the 84 drivers dealt with, five cases were sent to magistrates' court after fixed penalty notices were not paid.
A spokesman for the DVLA said: "All registration numbers must be displayed clearly and correctly on the number plate.
"This helps the police, enforcement agencies and members of the public to correctly identify a vehicle and also ensures the number plate can be accurately read by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to assist road safety and traffic enforcement.
"It is an offence to rearrange letters or numbers, or alter them so that they're hard to read or to any way obscure a number plate. If this is done to a personalised registration number it may be taken off the motorist."
Registration plates must be made from a reflective material and have black text on them.
The front plate should be a white background and the rear plate a yellow background with neither having a background pattern.
Advice from the DVLA also says the characters on a number place must be a certain height and size.
West Mercia Police says officers can use their discretion in deciding how to deal with any motorist found to have a defective licence plate.
In the response to the Freedom of Information request, the force said: "If a vehicle is identified as having a registration mark that fails to conform to regulations the officer can use their discretion to issue a vehicle defect rectification notice (VDRS) to allow the driver time to correct the defect."
"Alternatively, they can issue a traffic offence report for processing.
"If the individual fails to settle the matter via fixed penalty, the matter will be referred to the magistrates' court."
