Following an investigation by BBC London into the sale of number plates on Amazon, Regtransfers has asked for clarification around possible flaws in an online news article.
The story
The investigation, published on 12th February on the BBC website, exposed seven Amazon sellers supplying car number plates to consumers without verifying legal documents first. By law, a company cannot sell valid plates without confirming proper documentation - such as a driving licence or V5 document - before completing the transaction.
In response to the investigation, Amazon has taken steps to remove the listings, and claims that it will ban the sale of all number plates on its platform, with the exception of novelty plates.
However, Regtransfers spotted what appeared to be a potential flaw in the investigation and consequently contacted the BBC for further information.
The issue with the article
Regtransfers' CEO Mark Trimbee explained the company's concern over the BBC piece.
The number plates shown in the BBC article’s images - BBC1 LDN and BBC2 LDN - aren’t genuine registrations in a valid format, so they could be sold legally as 'show' or 'novelty' plates without the need for documentation.
The law only requires documentation to be provided for number plates showing valid UK registration formats. Supplying the plates shown in the BBC's examples without documentation would not have broken any rule or regulation, and genuine documentation cannot exist for a non-existent registration number.
As Trimbee points out, the plates illustrated in the article were not illegal if they were sold as novelty signs or show plates. If the specific plates shown were advertised as being road legal, or if the BBC ordered plates bearing a number in a valid registration format, then that would be a different matter.
The article states that one manufacturer did ask for documents, but still sent the ordered plates despite the BBC not providing the required paperwork. However, the article doesn't actually present any evidence to support that claim, or to demonstrate that the BBC actually tried to acquire any plates in a valid registration format without the required documentation.
BBC's response
Rather than reply directly to our enquiry, the BBC chose to make a small edit to the web page in question a few hours after we contacted them about our concerns. They added the disclaimer, "(the ones shown here are for illustrative purposes)" to the caption of an image showing two invalid number plates, which would not have required documentation to purchase.
At the time of writing, the article still doesn't contain any supporting evidence, or any indication of which registration numbers were ordered on the plates the BBC purchased.
Regtransfers' position
While Regtransfers doesn't doubt the BBC's claims, the website article contains no evidence or supporting details. As an informative news report, it does little to inform.
The rules governing number plates are already mysterious and confusing to many people. Reporting on the subject would better serve the public by presenting clear details of issues and investigations.
Despite reservations about the way the BBC presented their article, Regtransfers does welcome investigations such as this into the illicit supply of number plates without the required checks. We have reported many times on the issues presented by number plate cloning, highlighting the plight of motorists who have been incorrectly penalised because copies of their number plates have been used to commit a range of car-related offences.
Regtransfers recognises the efforts of the DVLA and Home Office in trying to combat the issue of number plate cloning, but there is more that still needs to be done. The few illicit suppliers that may now be blocked from selling on Amazon represent merely the tip of a much larger iceberg. Many more of these companies operate with impunity on sites like eBay, by claiming to provide 'show plates' for off-road use. So long as this aspect goes unaddressed, the issue of cloned plates will remain.
Meanwhile, Regtransfers would still like to see more details added to the BBC's online article.
