Motorist fined for taping a leaf to obscure their number plate

Surrey Roads Police stopped a driver on the A3 at Surrey

A driver has been fined after using double-sided tape to stick a leaf to their car’s number plate to obscure it.

Autumn means there are usually leaves on the road, which can blow onto vehicles. However, one driver took things a step too far by sticking the leaf to the end of their number plate, obscuring one of the digits. The driver had done this on both the front and rear plates.

Surrey Police posted the photos on X, formerly Twitter, showing the leaves firmly attached to the car.

In a post, the force said: “There are times when camouflage is needed and can look good. Leaves attached to your number plate with double-sided tape is neither.”

The motorist in a Toyota Corolla was stopped on the A3 at Guildford yesterday afternoon (October 3). The force said that a fixed penalty notice had been given for the leaves, while they had also been reported for speeding.

Surrey police told the PA news agency that the ‘car was seen to be driven on the A3 Northbound in excess of the speed limit and with the number plate partially covered’.

Perhaps not surprisingly it generates several leaf-based puns in the replies. The Metropolitan Police’s Roads and Transport division commented: “Were you in disb-leaf when you saw this?”

Other replies seemed to suggest that other motorists are using the leaf trick to avoid paying London’s ultra-low emissions zone (ULEZ) charge, which was rolled out across most areas within the end of the M25 at the end of August. If the number plate is partly obscured, it means cameras aren’t able to accurately read the registration and generate penalty notices.