More motorists caught with illegal, fanciful car number plates

SINGAPORE: The number of drivers caught for having illegal and fanciful car licence plates has gone up.

Although snazzy and stylish, many motorists who display them on their vehicles do not even know that they are illegal.

Some plates have wrong fonts or improper font sizes, while others come with blue LED lights.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the monthly figures for drivers found flouting the rules have doubled in nearly two years.

There were 242 cases per month in 2010 and 542 cases per month for the first eight months of this year. In 2011, the number of drivers caught for illegal licence plates was 335 per month.

The LTA guidelines stipulate that approved licence plates should have letters and figures that are 70mm high, 50mm wide and 10mm broad.

The penalty is a fine of up to S$1,000 or a jail term of up to three months.

Workshop owners told Channel NewsAsia most drivers do not know that their licence plates were not legal.

Iris Seah, owner of Chuan Heng Signcrafts, said: "The most common for improper car plates are either that they are too reflective or the fonts are not approved by LTA, and the reason that they are doing this is they just want to make their car more beautiful."

Francis Lim, Secretary of Singapore Motor Workshop Association, said: "I think the most common reason is everyone wants their car to look good, more on cosmetic and also it is easy to install."

— CNA/de