DRIVERS in Cheshire who have an illegal number plate have been caught at the rate of one a day, the Warrington Guardian has learned.

A Freedom of Information request to the Cheshire Constabulary has shown 1,101 motorists had plates found to be in contravention of the law since 2017.

Taken as an average of complete years data is available, that means 6.56 vehicles were caught every week – nearly one every day.

The figures show 2018 recorded the most offences, with 402. 2019 saw 350, and in 2017 some 272 motors were exposed. Even in 2020, when coronavirus restrictions mean roads have been far quieter, 77 plates were seen to fall foul of the law.

One in five of the illegal registration plates were found on vehicles produced by German manufacturers, with BMW alone making up 8.2 percent of the total.

Audi came in second with 7 percent, whereas Land Rover was third with 4.4 percent. However Japanese brands were the second-worst nation, with 13 percent of the 1,024 offences in 2017-19 coming from plates on cars made by that country.

Current government regulations ban vehicle owners from ‘rearranging or misrepresenting the numbers and letters on a number plate to form names or words, for example, fixing bolts to change any of the letters or numbers’.

Motorists also ‘cannot use a registration number to make your vehicle appear younger than it actually is’.

Offenders could be hit with a £1,000 fine and an instant MOT fail, or even have that registration withdraw”. Additionally, those in breach of the regulations on misrepresenting a number plate will not get back any money that you have paid for the registration number, or any other costs you have to pay.

Superintendent Jo Marshall-Bell, who is responsible for Roads and Crime at Cheshire Constabulary, said: “We need to be able to read registration plates clearly in order to police our roads effectively.

“There are restrictions in terms of the colour, size and shape of number plates and the letters and numbers on them so that the plates can be easily read by the human eye, computers and cameras.

“When these restrictions are not adhered to it can lead to plates being read incorrectly and a number of subsequent issues from a policing perspective, not least reducing our chances of bringing those guilty of other offences to justice.

“Under the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001, it is an offence to drive with incorrectly displayed number plates.”