7x5 plate and the Law?

[NTECUK]

Originally Posted by Red Herring

Here are the figures, you do the maths. Remember it has to be on two lines.


Character Height 64 mm
Character Width (except the figure 1 or letter I) 44 mm
Character stroke 10 mm
Space between characters 10 mm
Space between groups 30 mm
Top, bottom, and side margins (minimum) 11 mm
Space between vertical lines 13 mm

3. A registration plate obviously displaying a honeycomb or similar effect background.
A registration plate with a. characters width, stroke width, not of equal width along their entire length or incorrectly spaced
b. a character not correctly formed, sloping, or likely to be misread
c. any feature that has the effect of changing the appearance or legibility of any of the characters, so that the true identity of the vehicle is less easily established
d. characters formed using a font which is not substantially similar to the prescribed font e. characters formed using broken or multiple strokes
f. characters laid out in an incorrect format
g. a margin obviously less than the minimum requirement
h. a non-reflective border obviously wider than permitted or positioned too close to the characters
Thats the complete law as it stands at the moment.
I doubt Most traffic will know it that well.

As said it's not the plate size but the letter size, font and spacing. With that in mind and the amount of space the dragon and flags were taking up on your 8x5 plate, I'd say that one was illegal anyway, so you are no worse off.

I have a plate similar to your original (no silly dragons, just a Euro GB plate) on my XT600 bought before my Portugal trip last year, and the MOT tester just said that technically it was a fail, but he could read it clearly from a distance so he wasn't going to worry about it.

Obviously up to you if you want to take the risk, but IMHO, it's not a big risk.