License Plate Aversion

[mandelbug]

Ey up all,

Just got a quick question that people on here may be able to assist with

I have noticed more and more that cars over here in the UK (around London in particular) have a registration plate with a format 123 A 123 and a different font to the DVLA one. The cars don't have an EU sticker on them at all, I have noticed about 25% as Left Hookers, and 75% right hookers. After a little digging around, it would appear that these are Bulgarian and classed as unregistered (although there are 3 different letters that I need to check lol). Is it just me being suspect of anything unknown or is this the latest way to get around UK ANPR stuff and prosecutions?

[Bailes1992]

I'm sure there something to do with the government

[plod]

They are diplomatic plates i.e for diplomats working at embassies of foreign countries over here

[mandelbug]

The plates were white front and yellow rear, as far as I can work out the diplomats need to be red. Plus one of the cars I saw was something like a Kia Match Box lol. Will try and notice the middle letter see if it is common

[Busman]

I have seen most makes of cars with diplomat plates. Why not a cheap Kia to buzz around London in?

[mandelbug]

This was screaming up the M1 around Luton. Guess I would have thought that diplomats would have something a little more luxurious. The one I saw last night was a 5 series chaufeur driven beemer at tesco then just a few cars away was a Mercedes 4x4 parked up whilst whoever was in Tesco.

Guess it just seems weird that they are clearly foreign cars but don't have the country code/flag on them like you are supposed to do, certainly within the EU. Was just as curious as to where they were from and how come they are exempt so to speak from the norm and whether it was some form of Loophole that was being exploited

[DiscoPol]

it is undoubtedly being exploited but all within the law sadly,

here all cars with diplomatic status have blue plates, and there are a good few off them as we are near Warsaw so all the embassies are here along with all the staff and cars,

even the lowly admin staff, if they are foreign nationals get diplomatic plates so i have seen everything from the standard armoured 7 series BMWs for the Ambassadors to Kia shoe boxs for the P.A/domestic staff and everything in between plated up, non of them here use the country ID badge either, Im guessing they dont have to.

I would love to get a set, they seem to excuse you from just about anything.

Polski

[sirwiggum]

Diplomatic plates.

Usually 123 D 123 or 123 X 123

Wacky serif font.

Not to be confused with the trend for Southern Irish boy racers to put UK style plates on their Corsas eg. 98 D 1421

[mandelbug]

Yeah after more digging it appears they are legit diplomatic plates. Just never seen them before and they just looked out of place. Apparently the first three numbers denote which country they are a diplomat for Explains why I see loads of them around London but nowhere else really