Your private number plate is a crucial part of your vehicle. You have to follow legal rules related to the registration number plate. Placing proper spacing, letters and numbers are extremely important. Otherwise, you have to pay a hefty fine and you can lose your number plate.
Number plates can be robbed or stolen.
Yes. You have read it right.
What is the reason behind stealing or robbing the number plate?
Be sure that it is a crime just like any other robbery. Private number plates are stolen or snatched for various reasons.
- It can be someone trying to hide another crime by using your number plate so that you get caught.
- Criminals attach other people’s number plate to their car and commit many crimes for a certain period.
- Thieves can make money by selling your unique personalized number plate.
- Someone trying to dodge the money that has to pay for fuel and you getting a phone call from police for driving away without paying.
- Any individual trying to take revenge from you.
- Others
Things to do if your number plate is robbed:
Report about the missing of your private number plate to the concerned authorities.
Contact the DVLA and police without wasting any time. If you bring the matter to their concern immediately, they can easily catch the culprit and recover your number plate.
Informing the police and the DVLA will spare you from giving fines. Again, as the police know about your number plate now, the criminal can’t move far with your private number plate attached to his/her car.
In some particular cases related to the loss of a number plate due to theft, you can apply for keeping the specific number plate whether or not you get back that plate in the future. The condition applied is that you have to provide valid evidence of the plate being stolen. Also, you must receive a crime reference number and other necessary paperwork that you will have to use on time.
Buy a new number plate.
You can’t drive your car without a number plate. Hence, it is better if you buy a new number plate to continue driving. Often, it takes a lot of time to solve the case and recover the stolen private number plate. In the meantime, get hold of a new number plate that costs less. Take the help of promising number plate dealers. They have a huge range of inexpensive number plates specially designed for valued customers like you who have lost their favored number plates and want to attach another number plate for time being.
Take protection against thievery of private number plate in the future:
Thieves will keep watch on your number plate to commit heinous crime no matter what. You have to stay careful. Then also, if you face the unfortunate incident of number plate loss due to thievery or robbery, take necessary steps so that the same thing doesn’t happen again in your life.
Steps to take for restricting stealing of registration number plate:
- Park your car in a garage or any secured place.
- Use anti-theft screws to make your private number plates secured. Thieves cannot unscrew them from your car.
- Prefer using anti-theft number plates that break whenever someone tries to detach them from the car.
- If you park your car outside your home under the open sky, put a sensor on so that if someone comes too closer to your car or touches it, the sensor starts screaming and you get alert.
Always inform the police without wasting a single minute if your private number plate gets stolen or lost. Never take any risk by thinking that if you wait and investigate yourself, the plate can be found. Number plate stealing is a serious crime as many dangerous acts can be done using that plate and being innocent, you will be caught with the charge of doing that crime without even knowing anything about it.
Hence, the sooner you take action, the better it will be for you as you will alert the respected authorities about the mishap and also save yourself from being blamed for doing nothing.
Be alert, be smart, and be responsible. Use the suggested methods to protect your private number plate from wrongdoers.
Kent Charlie is associated with a vehicle registration agency that also deals with the personal number plate design. He has also been writing for many online publications on a freelance basis. Kent loves traveling and adventure riding, which he often does alone. Collecting heritage car number plates is one of his favorites and he takes pride in that. He takes inspiration from Plates4Less which sells number plates for vehicles.
