So it turns out he's actually an 'unsavoury' character : -)
Wannabe W1 DOW-er faked car crash to track down reg plate's owner
A man from Bristol, England, lied to a government agency to get his hands on a private number plate reading "W1 DOW", a court has heard. In a hearing at Bristol Magistrates' Court, Miles Savory – director of Accident Claims Handlers – yesterday pleaded guilty to illegally obtaining the personal information of the plate's owner …
COMMENTS
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Friday 5th January 2018 11:45 GMT Ogi
> and why does he want widow on his numberplate?
Similar reason to the guy he wanted to buy it from? Or maybe he owns an early Porsche 911 and wanted an appropriate plate?
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Thursday 4th January 2018 12:53 GMT Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese
Re: And what about the DVLA?
Due diligence check was probably done initially against the company, so that any requests from them could be honoured without having to go through the rigmarole of a check each time.. Once initial trust has been established, the trusted party can (if they are so inclined, and he was) abuse that trust.
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Thursday 4th January 2018 14:16 GMT Doctor Syntax
Re: And what about the DVLA?
"the rigmarole of a check"
The "rigmarole" could include requiring the crime number as per the OP and making 1 in N checks with the police. It's called "having a process in place".
It raises the question of how DVLA will respond to further requests from this guy's office in future. If they really do make the thorough checks which now seem appropriate it could cost him a packet.
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Thursday 4th January 2018 15:35 GMT Prst. V.Jeltz
Re: And what about the DVLA?
Well in some countries everyone is entitled to look up any vehicle / owner details.
So is it that big a deal?
I realise there will be knee jerk privacy enthusiast downvotes , but it works in other countries - proper civilised countries i'm talking ... ( i think its Norway)
They also make public how much everyone earns
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Thursday 4th January 2018 16:00 GMT Goldmember
Re: And what about the DVLA?
"I think the DVLA should be reported to the ICO for failing to have stringent checks in place. It looks like they give out info without any kind of due dilligence."
Big upvote for that. They've passed my details on to various cowboy private parking "companies" without any checks, and even allowed one of my previous cars - which was stolen and had been reported as such - to be registered to someone else and taxed.
It seems that not only do they not have 'stringent' checks in place, they seemingly have no checks at all.
Fuckers.
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Friday 5th January 2018 07:36 GMT TonyB
Re: And what about the DVLA?
Perhaps the system should be changed so that when a private (non police) entity asks for ownership details, you are also sent a copy of the response. And if it shows that the enquiry came from 'Ethical Parking Limited' and a week later you get a penalty demand from 'Bovver Boy Parking', you know that EPS have passed on your details to BBP (probably the same person, but legally separate entities so presumably in contravention of DVLC rules) and on receipt of a complaint, DVLC should stop both entities from accessing their data.
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Thursday 4th January 2018 13:08 GMT phuzz
They didn't call it the Bristol Olympus (as seen used in the Vulcan, and Concorde) because it was made in Kent mate.
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Thursday 4th January 2018 17:44 GMT dnj
Re: Switzerland....
With classic Minis and Landrovers, and many other classics too being stolen to order it would be very bad for the classic car community if anyone who sees a pic of your car on the Internet can then find it.
Often pics of classics are taken at car shows and meets by people who are not the owner and so they can't control where they end up.
The best number plate I ever say was BEG41T on the back of a Ferrari F40 about 25 or so years ago.
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Thursday 4th January 2018 16:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
Because they're too busy nicking people who have just bought a second-hand car that has apparently used the wrong font on the plate, even with perfect spacing, and which has been driving around another part of the country for several years without difficulty.
But the plod concerned was a Freemason, so no point complaining. Personally if I saw him lying in the gutter on fire I wouldn't cross the road to piss on him.
How to increase the popularity of the plods with the general public.
Me? Pissed off? Nooooo...
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Thursday 4th January 2018 16:44 GMT Anonymous Coward
Not all cops are crooks
Let us say that due to leniency I have got away from two separate situations which would have resulted in:
1st one - 6-9 points plus a fat fine (with already 3 points at the time)(I was a bit of dick here)
2nd one - 3 points and possibly £60-odd fine (I was a bit unfortunate here)
in neither case I was lying to the police or trying to make them pity me.
So - don't tar everybody with the same brush.
P.S. I have never worked for law enforcement, either in civilian or uniformed role
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Friday 5th January 2018 02:08 GMT FozzyBear
Re: Not all cops are crooks
No it's called discretionary powers of the constabulary.
Would you prefer a constable to pull you over and having found that you are not on drugs or alcohol and apologetic, he lets you off with a warning or the officer that regardless how good your driving record is hands over fist full of tickets and the feeling the gestapo could learn a thing or two from him.
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Friday 5th January 2018 15:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Not all cops are crooks
Ah yes, the infamous discretionary powers. So being a blonde bimbo or a black teenager would have no bearing on the outcome? LOL. Have you heard of white male privilege?
Arbitrary law enforcement based on which cop you happen to get on the day or which side of bed he got out of, isn't justice.
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Friday 5th January 2018 02:13 GMT John Brown (no body)
"Because they're too busy nicking people who have just bought a second-hand car that has apparently used the wrong font on the plate, even with perfect spacing, and which has been driving around another part of the country for several years without difficulty."
Usually it's because the crappy ANPR cameras can't cope with any variation from the strict letter of the law in number plate design. Now that tax discs are gone, ANPR is how VED dodgers are caught so pretty much any number plate which isn't read by ANPR is seen as "suspect" and likely to result in a stop by any ANPR equipped plodmobile.
Non-standard plates have always been illegal, but when it was down to the Mk.1 eyeball, it was generally easily readable so they didn't bother with the minor offences so much.
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Friday 5th January 2018 14:02 GMT thegroucho
irregular numberplates
The law clearly states what the plates should be like.
If you just bought a vehicle, it is your fault for not asking the seller to knock the price down for the few ££s it would cost you to rectify the matter. You would if you thought the price does not reflect the expected repairs, don't know why you would be paying only to replace the numberplates out of your own pocket.
If you just bought the car and still waiting for DVLA documents, you can expect some degree of leniency if you are stopped for something as trivial as numberplates.
Six months later however if you haven't rectified it - it is your own fault for being a lazy slob.
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Thursday 4th January 2018 15:45 GMT Stevie
Bah!
The UK plate system is idiotic and outdated anyway. The British idea of a "personalised plate" is laughable as a result.
The DMV should have realised the market for properly personalised plates years ago and begun a project to make it happen so it could be monetised.
And before anyone feels the need to explain, I understand how the UK plates "work", and the difference in the way they are allocated to that of the USA. I owned cars in the UK for over a decade and once could read a car's birth certificate (so to speak). I lost the skill when literally everything else became important.
There is no reason that plates couldn't be designed to convey the *important* registration info while at the same time allowing the freedom that US drivers have, should they wish to do so, to parade around with a personal message on their bourgemobile.
Personal fave: "DETHTUNG" on a Corvette back in the 90s.
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Thursday 4th January 2018 16:36 GMT CraPo
Re: Bah!
The post 1st September 2001 system is actually quite clever given what can be spelled out and the amount of business generated by it, whilst still being similar to the old system. It is claimed that the new system was designed to make it easier to remember registrations in the event of an accident or crime but if I was a suspicious man I would say that whoever came up with it had one eye on the custom sale aspect of it. I can't think of any other comparable European system.
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Thursday 4th January 2018 16:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
"a private number plate"
Or vanity plate as they are more correctly known.
Both the bloke who wanted it and the bloke who has it are knobs - "W1DOW" spells "W1DOW" and nothing else.
It's just a sodding serial number. Do these people try and get a telly with a serial number that supposedly spells something? How about a fridge?
Sad cunts with money to piss away on frivolity.
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Thursday 4th January 2018 22:21 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: "a private number plate"
You sound like just the sort of dickhead you're criticizing.
Are people only allowed to do what you think is right. Do you think anyone complaining about how you spend your money is correct? If not, what makes you think you can tell others what to do? Arrogance?
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Friday 5th January 2018 00:40 GMT d3vy
Re: "a private number plate"
Oh dear Annon, has it annoyed you that someone has more disposable income than you?
Are you infuriated that someone has the audacity to spend their money on something you feel to be silly?
Christ, I can't imagine what you'd think if you looked at some of the things I've spent money on!
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Friday 5th January 2018 12:07 GMT ICPurvis47
Re: "a private number plate"
When I was courting, I was using my mother's 100E, but it just didn't cut the mustard as a passion wagon. I put feelers about at the college I was studying at, and soon found an old Austin Princess 3 Litre for the princely sum of £20 from one of the lecturers. After we were married and the Princess failed its MOT, we went to buy a new(ish) Vauxhall. My wife said she liked our old number plate, a second series (ie 3 numbers followed by 3 letters), so we transferred it onto the Vauxhall. It is now on its ninth car, my Classic Range Rover. This goes to show that you don't have to have large amounts of spare cash to own a desirable number plate, just be at the right place at the right time. As it happens, way back in the late Seventies, when the Third Series (3 letters, 3 numbers, and a Year Suffix) was approaching its end, the DVLA ran a competition to design a new system, which would consist of seven digits as previously and allow for more combinations. In the end they opted to simply reverse the Third Series (Year Prefix, 3 numbers, 3 letters), which took them up to the end of the century. I entered that competition and suggested a system which is almost identical with the current system, only the Registration Office letters have been changed from my suggestion. So, if as another commentard has stated, the system is ridiculous, I'm afraid that I'm at least partly to blame. (and no, I wasn't credited with the suggestion, nor did I receive any form of prize).
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Thursday 4th January 2018 16:43 GMT Trumpet Winsock
Surgeon
Before I retired I used to walk the couple of miles into work. Part of my route went along the main road into town.
From time to time a sports car would go past with the registration TIB 1A. Yep, apparently a surgeon at the local hospital.
One of the people who worked there told me that the surgeons wife also worked as a surgeon at the hospital and her car reg was FIB 1A. I'm not sure if they were winding me up about that.
>>>>>>>>>>>> The one with the Stethoscope in the pocket
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Thursday 4th January 2018 21:32 GMT James 94
only £700? chopping his gearstick off would be too good for him.
Im not an expert on personalised number plates. But i guess it would cost much more than £700 for one plonker to part with a plate such as this to another plonker who contacted him out of the blue.
I reckon this ambulance chaser is probably chuffed his "cheeky" attempt to get the details only cost him £700 and glad they didnt delve into "Accident Claims Handlers" business practices.
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Friday 5th January 2018 10:25 GMT Reue
Parking charge companies
The good folks over at MSE claim to have a 99% success rate in court against private parking charges. As these charges are almost always thrown out will the DVLA begin handing over all of those requests to the ICO so these cowboy ex-clampers start getting hit by real fines (unlike their fake invoices)?