Personal plates

[greenMachine]

Interesting.

I recently had a Jan 2022 infringement notice issued by ACT for a NSW rego owned by a Vic hire company withdrawn over the phone. Alleged offender (hirer) had been using my address. With my knowledge, while he and his partner (my GF daughter) were touring Oz while on holiday from Germany. In 2015! He sold the car before returning to Germany, not been back since! Very nice and pretty smart ACT Gov lady took my word for it, but I suspect she could see the expiry date on the licence submitted by the hire company, which would have expired some time ago. Wasn't even the same car (unsurprising). They even submitted a stat dec that he had been the hirer of the vehicle - that could get them into hot water!

CR, usually a stat dec, with supporting info, will do the trick. Surprised they pushed so hard, not like you did a murder ... is it?

[CrazyRacer]

I did submit a request to Vic Police for review of the infringement including the evidence of it being the wrong vehicle. The response I received said that they were satisfied that the offence had occurred, which wasn’t what I was disputing, but rather that it was not my car involved.

When I finally got it withdrawn by the Department of Justice they said the reviewer would get a rap over the knuckles and told to do their job properly. So there is a process to deal with this sort of error, it just wasn’t followed properly in my case.

[bruce]

Just a lazy public servant who could not be bothered to check.

[Lokiel]

^
Be thankful you're NOT in the US.
When I lived there in the early 90's there was a case of a woman that lived in Wisconsin who'd been hassled for years by a Californian law firm for not paying child support to a child that SHE'D FATHERED!
Despite providing evidence that she was born a female in Wisconsin, the law firm continued hassling her purely because her name matched the name of the father on the birth certificate.
It only ended when the local police authorities in her county told the law firm not to continue wasting police time on the issue because they were clearly chasing the wrong person.

[StillIC]

.....
With regular plates the chance of copping the same rego on the same make and model would have to be next to zero.

This is the second *MX5* with matching interstate plates I have heard of this happening to. The previous event was in 2016 or 2017. One car belonged to a NSW MX5 Club member and the other a VIC MX5 Club member. They both had the same personalised plates in each state, with MX5 or something on them. I can't remember who was guilty, but the fine was sent to the wrong state/driver. Again, the offence was in VIC and they f'ed it up.

PS: While complaining about VIC, when I towed my MX5 on a trailer there they charged my tow car (with the e-tag) and my MX5 on the trailer (photographed) for the use of the tollways. Don't leave your plates on your car if it is on a trailer in VIC!

[Jeo]

I always appreciate the interesting things done with standard plates more than people who just bought full custom characters.

Coming up with something relevant using the standard ACT format of YXX-### or YXX-##X I feel was also particularly challenging as you were locked into the leading Y. Back in the day there were a pair of mk4 Golfs with the plates YEA-80I and YEA-80Y respectively. Or the countless YLD plates - YLD-13B on an FD, YLD-350 on a HQ, YLD-03L on a VL, etc. Actually now that I think about it I saw YES-13B on a CX5 recently - sent a photo of it to friends with a caption something to the effect of "tell me you got old and hid kids without telling me you got old and had kids".

I had YDF-20C on wait many years ago as it was already issued as a standard plate at the time. Was an attempt to make fun of my housemates s2000 and why didn't he have an MX5 with it's obviously superior BP engine...


Using the L plate on EARNER is also pretty clever I reckon. Back in the autosalon days there were a few HATXXX plates getting around. Chuck your P plate on the front and suddenly you had yourself a PHAT CRX, R33, S13, etc.

[bruce]

^
Be thankful you're NOT in the US.
When I lived there in the early 90's there was a case of a woman that lived in Wisconsin who'd been hassled for years by a Californian law firm for not paying child support to a child that SHE'D FATHERED!
Despite providing evidence that she was born a female in Wisconsin, the law firm continued hassling her purely because her name matched the name of the father on the birth certificate.
It only ended when the local police authorities in her county told the law firm not to continue wasting police time on the issue because they were clearly chasing the wrong person.

There is obvously more to the story that we're not privvy to. You have to remember that (especially) solicitors are not dumb.

[bruce]

I do enjoy people's imaginations with plates. But ya gotta remember there has to be over a million people in Australia with an interest in plates, so all the good combos you thought was 'original' have already been taken (and considered by many people before you).
Same as mobile numbers, most if not all the good numbers are already gone. I regularly get customers thinking their 'original' combo of numbers is just sitting there waiting for them. People are naive and when I educate them they still don't believe it.

[bruce]

All this confusion about the same plate in different States. Goes back to my questioning why are they are valued highly (!) when there are exact multiple versions available across the country (and all the limitations to usage as a result).

[StillIC]

There is obvously more to the story that we're not privvy to. You have to remember that (especially) solicitors are not dumb.

Having just been through a legal process where I sought advice from 4 solicitors, hired one, dumped him, hired another who then went on leave, leaving me with a 6th, before she quit leaving me with the 5th one who came back from leave. Oh, I also spent >$3000 on a barrister for an afternoon which was a complete waste of money; he did nothing for me.

I also work with a number of people with law degrees, have dated one, have a friend who is one and am the direct supervisor of one. They have a large range of intelligence and abilities and some of them are *dumb*. And very few of them can do maths.

[Lokiel]

^
Be thankful you're NOT in the US.
When I lived there in the early 90's there was a case of a woman that lived in Wisconsin who'd been hassled for years by a Californian law firm for not paying child support to a child that SHE'D FATHERED!
Despite providing evidence that she was born a female in Wisconsin, the law firm continued hassling her purely because her name matched the name of the father on the birth certificate.
It only ended when the local police authorities in her county told the law firm not to continue wasting police time on the issue because they were clearly chasing the wrong person.

There is obvously more to the story that we're not privvy to. You have to remember that (especially) solicitors are not dumb.

DON'T underestimate "dumb"(and lazy) - they were probably being paid by the child's mother and it was the only name they could find that matched.

Apologies to any lawyers out there but I have little respect for the profession, especially when it come to divorce settlements where the only winners are the lawyers.

[Rocky]

Every occupation has their share of "dumbasses" and others who are really good at their job.
For every dumb lazy Public Servant I worked with in 40 years in the Public Service, I knew one who was very smart and hardworking.
Since moving in to our new home, we have sent at least 4 Centrelink letters back to them marked " No longer at this address - new address is XXXXXXX"
What happend to these letters? Did they just bin them when they got them back? I suspect some lazy individual did just that.
The Law is immensely detailed and complex and these days it's a specialist area. You are looking for a specialist who is experienced AND motivated to actually solve your problem as opposed to cranking up as many billable hours as possible. A mate recently had a very experienced Barrister who was clearly going into Court each day and just flying by the seat of his pants - I watched the case from the public gallery (lost the case naturally.)
It's like trying to find a good Tradie....

[Blesif]

When I bought my 1961Triumph TR3 in 2002 I put it on conditional registration. Conditional registration plates in NSW are given out in numerical order and I got given 31961-H. The H stands for historic. It was several days before I realised the happy coincidence.

By far my favourite personalised plates were the ones I saw in Bridge Street, Sydney one summer eve many years ago. The vehicle was an HQ ute well worked over with a massive V8 with the air intake projecting neatly through the bonnet. Sounds crass but it was very eye catching and the V8 sounded magic. The number plate was: SUBTLE

[Red_Bullet]

I never saw the point is personalised plates, what are wrong with the ones that you get by default included with your registration? Why pay MORE money to the government than you are mandated to?

[Jeo]

I never saw the point in a nice car. What's wrong with a '03 Camry? Why pay MORE money than is strictly necessary for personal transportation?

Let people have nice things. What's it to you.