What Car? Q&A - Muddy numberplates

Q: I have seen a lot of really filthy licence plates around recently, so dirty that it’s impossible to read the number. This can’t be legal, can it?
Gordon Howe

A: The Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 states that if a registration mark fixed on a vehicle is in any way ‘obscured or rendered or allowed to become not easily distinguishable’ the owner is guilty of an offence.

So, allowing your number plate to become unreadable is illegal. The punishment for this offence is a fine only, but it is not limited to the standard fixed penalty amount of £60.

Where someone fraudulently obscures the registration mark, they face the possibility of a two-year prison sentence and hefty fine.