Bradford Motorist Falls Foul of Plate Space Rules

A timely reminder of the need to indulge the whims of authorities with, seemingly, little better to do came to light last month, when a Bradford motorist was, effectively, fined £40 for failing to display exactly the correct amount of space between the component groups of characters on her licence plate.

The offence was probably only spotted by the eagle-eyed traffic warden because the plate, 'B17CTH', could be taken to resemble a mildly offensive word. Had it have been something innocuous like 'B123ABC' it is improbable that it would have attracted the fastidious official's attention in the first place.

But, no. It has to be presented as 'B17', followed by exactly 33mm of white space, and then 'CTH'. Otherwise, a dastardly crime has been committed.

It is very hard to understand the exact logic behind this pedantic prescription, although the argument is likely to follow some sort of perceived wisdom concerning the ease of observation and recall. But, of course, no-one includes the space when referring to their own plate, let alone anyone else's: "Yes, officer. I saw the getaway car clearly. It's number was R, O, B, space, 8, E, R."

Fortunately, in the case of the 'Bradford Bitch' the plaintiff's defence - that the plate was made up by a reputable dealer who, if anyone, should be responsible for its integrity - was duly accepted. Gillian Leahy was given an interestingly euphemistic 'absolute' discharge, which oddly included a hefty fee towards the courts expenses.

As the magistrate, Lesley Mole, sensibly commented, "It is a great pity that this situation could not have been dealt with right at the beginning."

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