Popemobile to have SCV 1 number plates.

The latest Popemobile has been unveiled ahead of the Pontiff's visit to the UK, a Mercedes with an average speed of 6mph.

The M class vehicle, with space for the Pope to stand and wave at the crowd, will be driven by a so far unnamed British driver.

It is not the first time the car has been used, having already made several outings in other countries.

The Popemobile carries the number plates SCV 1, which stands for Stato della Citta del Vaticano, or Vatican city state in Italian. (The 'SCV 1' on the Pope Mobile is Vatican registered, so is a duplicate of the UK one which is currently on a Cherokee Jeep)

Although the average speed is just 6mph, the vehicle can go much faster if needs be.

Historically, different Popes have used a variety of methods to enable them to greet the public.

Many years ago a simple chair was used that was held aloft and carried by papal attendants.

The first modified vehicles were used by Pope John Paul II in the 80s and were often crude adaptations of vans or trucks. The vehicles were issued the number plate VIP 1 for his visit. The cherished number plate VIP 1 was then sold to Roman Abramovich for £285,000 in July 2006.

Today he will travel from Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh through the centre of the Scottish capital for his first day of his visit.

After traveling to London for events tomorrow he will be driven in the Popemobile at 5pm from Lambeth Palace through to Westminster.

On Saturday evening, prior to a prayer vigil at Hyde Park, the vehicle will again be making its way through central London.

Pope Benedict moves to the West Midlands on Sunday where people will be able to line Hagley Road in Birmingham as he makes his way to an open air mass at Cofton Park.





Reg

Tourist beware. Watch your speed in Spain.

A new speed campaign has been launched on the roads of Spain and the authorities targeting foreign drivers with their radar gun sights.

Plans to stop and fine tourists breaking the speed limit have been boosted by a new system. Each roadside camera can photograph number plates from any country. The picture is then shown to the driver on the spot, there is no escape.

"In 2009, 30 percent of offenders were foreign vehicles, and on some speed traps in the summer the figure exceeded 40 per cent. Here we have an alternative that enables us to show the driver the offence they have committed," explained
Frederico Fernandez, the deputy head of Spain’s
Dirección General de Tráfico.

The new speed cameras have been installed at four locations in regions where there is a high number of vehicles with foreign registration plates. The move has heightened the debate in Spain on whether speeding fines save lives or if it is just another way for the government to raise funds.


You could always get one of these ; )




Reg

The law finally catches up with number plate fraudster

Justice has finally been served to a fraudster who ripped off a motorcyclist from a village near Burton more than a decade ago.

Mark Seabridge, 46, boasted to a friend as he flew off to a new life as a restaurant owner in Tenerife that he had conned someone out of 6,000 pounds for a private number plates, Stafford Crown Court heard.

The victim was Mark Sadler, from Wychnor, who had handed over a banker's draft for 6,000 pounds for the cherished registration M4RKS in 1999.

However, Anthony Johnston, prosecuting, told the court that all Mr Sadler got for his money was a pair of number plates, as Seabridge did not own the actual right to it.

It had been bought by someone else at auction.

Mr Sadler, who wanted to put the number plate on a motorbike, got his documentation returned and when he tried to contact Seabridge, he had disappeared.

Mr Johnston said Seabridge's partner had revealed the money was spent on living expenses in Tenerife.

Amanda O'Mara, defending, said Seabridge had subsequently lost his restaurant business on the Spanish island.

He was arrested when he came back to the UK in 2006 to be a prosecution witness in a trial.

However, he then went missing again until his recent arrest.

The court heard Seabridge had already served 37 days in custody, including a sentence for skipping bail following his arrest in 2006.

Seabridge, from Farnborough, Hampshire, admitted a charge of obtaining money by deception and was given a 12 week prison sentence, suspended for a year.

He was also ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid community work.

Judge Mark Eades told him: "This was a case of blatant fraud on Mr Sadler.

"You regarded it as a con to get money to feather your nest in Tenerife.

"If I was Mr Sadler, I would feel extremely aggrieved." Judge Eades also told Seabridge that he was lucky he was coming before the courts now, at a time when sentences are less severe than previously.

Referring to current sentencing guidelines, he told the defendant: "If you had come up for sentence in 1999, the notion of getting a four week sentence would have been laughed at."





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Town Hall Number Plate Spies, Caught in the Act

Snoops at local town halls across the country have been caught in the act, using the DVLA’s database to spy on people.

The Big Brother tactics emerged after councils were given the go ahead to use DVLA car registration records, strictly to track down owners of ­abandoned ­vehicles.

Instead, bureaucrats have been checking up on residents suspected of other offences that have nothing to do with motoring, in a blatant breach of the rules.

As a result, several councils have been banned from accessing the database and many more have received warnings after serious breaches were uncovered.

155 of the 432 local authorities allowed to use the ­database were audited, showing that the DVLA’s ­system was accessed 750 times a day in the 2009/10 financial year.

However, it was discovered that ­councils were using the system to try and find people for a variety of non motoring offences including horse fouling, littering and owning unruly/dangerous dogs.

Red coded warnings were sent by the DVLA to the chief executives of 56 authorities where ­serious breaches of the system had been uncovered. A further 99 also received warnings about abusing the system and 12, which failed to make the changes requested by the DVLA, have been banned ­altogether.

Campaign director of Big Brother Watch, Dylan Sharpe, said: "The outrageous and often illegal abuse of the DVLA database is yet another example of the way in which local ­councils will use any available means to keep a check on their residents.

"Law abiding people, or those suspected of very minor offences, are regularly having their ­personal lives exposed.

"They are being spied on for ­nonsensical reasons by these inflated town hall bureaucrats.

"The Government needs to rein in this sort of clandestine snooping as a matter of urgency."

Inspectors found councils breaking the rules by searching for registration plates with partial ­numbers, or by failing to log in and out of the database correctly.

Councils were given 24 hour access to the database to make it easier to find the owners of abandoned vehicles.

After a move by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs the access was upgraded to help council staff investigate so called SDHp "environmental crimes".

A DVLA spokesman said: "We carry out regular audits of users to ensure they respect the terms and conditions of the contract and user agreements which cover this service. The reasons for suspension range from failure to respond to an audit letter to failure to comply with record keeping or data access requirements.

"In most cases, suspensions were related to mismanagement and record keeping, rather than inappropriate access."

The barred authorities are Nottingham City and Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, Corby in Northamptonshire, Brighton and Hove, ­Hastings and Lewes, all in East Sussex, ­Elmbridge in Surrey, Hull in East ­Yorkshire, Tower Hamlets in east ­London, ­Blackpool in Lancashire, ­Bedford in Bedfordshire and Stroud in Gloucestershire.




Reg

Driver allowed to keep satanic plate

A driver in Skye was cleared in court after it was claimed that cyclists, who complained about her driving, did not like her "satanic" S666 SKY car number plates.

Sally Phelps, 65, was accused at Portree Sheriff and JP Court of careless driving in her black Volvo sports car by passing too close to a couple of women cyclists and frightening them. She was found not guilty after defence solicitor Duncan Burd produced a Bible in court and told the three magistrates on the bench: "The two cyclists were annoyed at the devil's car going past them so decided to report her to the police."

Yesterday, Mrs Phelps, a community councillor, of Kilmuir House guest house, Kilmuir, said: "I am not scrapping my unique registration plate, despite its apparent controversy. I had no idea my car number had connections with the devil.

"When my husband, Roy, bought the number several years ago it was for the 'SKY' part. The 666 bit came with it."

One of the cyclists, Fiona MacDonald, 49, who said in evidence she was a Christian, claimed she "felt the heat" of the car as it passed her with its "number of the beast" registration plates.

Mr Burd told the court; "In the Bible, Revelations 13:18 says 'Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast for it is the number of a man. His number is 666'."

Fiscal Stewart Maciver told the magistrates; "It is not the case that the cyclists were out to get her as she shot past in her fancy Volvo. There is nothing more sinister than it is a distinctive plate."

Both Mrs MacDonald and her friend, Victoria MacLean, 42, both of Uig, Skye, denied that the 666 registration plates had prompted a complaint to the police.

The chairwoman of the magistrates told Mrs Phelps; "It has been a difficult decision but there is reasonable doubt, so you are entitled to an acquittal. You are not guilty."




Reg

Unfineable Number Plates in London

Reg

Council names and shames foreign super car drivers who flout parking laws

Brazenly pulled up on yellow lines in some of London's most salubrious locations, the wealthy owners of these super cars pay little heed to the rules of the road.




But a council is naming and shaming drivers of foreign-registered vehicles in an attempt to recover nearly 4 million owed in unpaid parking fines.

Westminster Council claims the owners of Bugattis, Ferraris and Lamborghinis routinely flout parking restrictions because they know officials are powerless to trace them in their own countries.

The council, Britain's largest parking authority, accuses the culprits of a "blatant disregard" for the country's road laws by refusing to pay the penalties.

In the past three years, offenders have failed to settle a total of 36,332 parking tickets, leaving the council 3,776,490 pounds out of pocket.

Top of the authority's most wanted list is the owner of a £300,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom, who owes them 2,000 pounds for 18 parking tickets.

While the owner of a Bugatti Veyron L'Edition Centenaire would have lavished 1.2 million on buying their 250mph car, they have failed to pay a 120 pound fine for parking on a single yellow line outside Selfridges.

Despite having the distinctive car registration 111111, the council is also struggling to track the driver of a red and black Bugatti Veyron ticketed this month near Marble Arch. All three cars are on Arabic plates.

Other prolific offenders include owners of a US registered Hummer and a Lamborghini Murcielago from Dubai.

Westminster Council is calling on the Government to help establish a system of international co operation to allow local authorities to trace foreign motorists – 80 per cent of whom refuse to pay fines.

Currently, there are no laws to provide parking authorities with access to overseas driver and vehicle registration data to chase up parking fines.

New EU legislation will allow member states to share such information but experts say British authorities will not be able to use the law because parking offences are not classified as criminal offences in this country.

Cllr Lee Rowley, Westminster Council's cabinet member for parking, said: "British taxpayers can no longer foot the bill for foreign motorists who seem think the rules of this country do not apply to them.

"We would like to see a more rigorous system put in place to hold these drivers to account and send a clear message that this blatant disregard of the law will not be tolerated."

Officials say the problem is most pronounced among vehicles registered in the Middle East, which are frequently seen parked on yellow lines, in bus lanes or in residents' parking bays in expensive parts of the capital.

Many wealthy Arabs have their sports cars flown into Britain by private jet during the so called 'season' in July and August, when it has become fashionable to visit London.

The issue follows complaints, from residents in Knightsbridge over sports car owners shattering their night time peace by racing through the streets around Harrods.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed last week that campaigners claim wealthy Middle Eastern visitors are making residential roads "like the starting grid of Le Mans" since the Qatari royal family purchased the department store in May.

Official figures earlier this year show that owners of foreign registered vehicles evade motoring fines totaling nearly 15 million pounds each year across Britain.

Sparks, a coalition of London councils established to tackle the problem, said 330,000 tickets worth 12.9 million are issued to foreign registered vehicles in London each year for parking and other contraventions. One in eight foreign registered vehicle owners fails to pay their congestion charge.

In June it emerged that foreign diplomats in the capital owe more than 37 million in unpaid congestion charges, parking fines and other motoring penalties.

Last year, Westminster Council wrote off more than 20 million in unpaid parking fines after failing to trace the owners of offending vehicles.

Owners of vehicles on foreign number plates are allowed to drive them temporarily in Britain for a total of six months in any 12 month period without registering them or taxing them in the UK.

After that they must register and tax them with British plates through the DVLA.

Those with number plates bearing letters or numbers not identifiable in Britain must obtain a temporary registration mark from the DVLA for the duration of their visit.






Original article by Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:30AM BST 14 Aug 2010
Telegraph.co.uk