North Wales Police will be taking part in a nationwide crackdown on illegal number plates, following concern at the growing use of unlawful registration plates.

Operation Larch is a week-long national campaign and starts today (Monday, the 28th of January). The operation is aimed at stepping up enforcement of current regulations by targeting motor vehicles with misrepresented plates.

The seven-day operation will aim to:

• Identify any links between the use of misrepresented registration marks and criminality

• Provide suitable evidence to justify changes to penalty levels for related offences and

• Maximise the disruption of criminal activities and reduce crime levels.

 Superintendent Barry Jones from the force’s Operational Services Division said: “The operation will deal with vehicle registration plates of a non standard nature. Over the years it has become popular to customise number plates in a variety of ways, such as making the allocated mark spell a word or reducing the size of the letters and numbers. This is an offence, pure and simple.

“Registration marks are placed on vehicles for the purposes of identification and there are specific requirement relating to the size and colour to be used and how the plate is set out.

“North Wales Police are engaging in the operation and will deal with drivers who fail to comply with the regulations accordingly. Some drivers alter the registration marks to satisfy a fashion statement with others simply doing it to avoid identification. This is a worrying trend in this age of heightened security. I would ask the public to co-operate with us and if you have a non-standard registration mark on your vehicle replace it now with a legal one.”

The rules…..

The law states that:

• You must not alter, rearrange or misrepresent the letters or numbers

• Characters must not be moved from one group to the other (e.g A242 ABC must not be displayed as A242A BC ).

Offences may result in any or all of the following:

• A fine of up to £1,000

• The registration mark may be withdrawn without compensation

• The vehicle may fail the MOT test

Number plates must be replaced if they have been customised with:

• Stylised letter and/or figures such as italics

• Number plate fixing bolts that alter the appearance of the letters and/or numbers

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR ) cameras will be deployed during the campaign and checks will be carried out on vehicles and their drivers to establish links to any other crimes.

Further information regarding number plate regulations are available at – www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/leaflets/v796.pdf