Last night I went to a car/bike meet held in a shopping centre carpark so as far as I'm aware it would be classed as "private land" and not public road because it is owned by the shopping centre...

Anyway so the police turn up because they have nothing better to do and start snooping around my bike, so i decided to not go over and get my friends to see what they were saying, turns out they were complaining it has no physical tax showing (because I renewed it online a couple hours before the meet so that's not a problem) and they said the numberplate is the wrong size, they looked around it a bit more and then moved on... But I can't help but think this isnt the last I'll hear about the matter, although no contact with me(the owner) of the bike was made with the police last night, as I kept my distance.

So its got me thinking, is there any possible thing they could actually fine me for? The bike is taxed, MOT'd, insured and I am fully legal to ride it with all modifications declared... They had not seen me riding the bike and it was turned off with no keys, a cold engine, parked in a parking space, for all they know I could have had the bike driven down in a van for show purposes... So what's the legality of this situation? Yes the plate is smaller than the legal size but I could have easily replaced it with a normal size plate before I left after the show..

Anyone else ever had troubles with this?

P.S iv never been pulled over before involving my plate.

 

Road laws don't apply on private property no, but a public shopping center means you had to get there on public roads so thats where they'll get ya.

 

UK law states that you must display a valid tax disc. Because you were on private property, they couldn't 'do you', but if you had been parked on the 'public highway', you would probably have got a ticket, even though you had taxed it on line, the offence is a failure to display.

Some people carry the tax disc in their pocket and produce it when requested, but if the bike is unattended, you'll still get a ticket as it's a failure to display.

The choice is yours, I always display mine in a tax disc holder, a determined person could remove it, but it takes about 20 minutes

 

I see, that makes sense...

But the question is, let's say I removed the tax holder for "display purposes" while the bike was unattended in the private carpark, then refitted it to leave and ride home on the public road.. is there any way they can send me a ticket in this situation?

I was never actually spoken to by the police officers and got home on the public roads without being stopped.

 

I would imagine that if they wanted to give you a ticket, they would have tried to track you down in the parking lot and answer right then and there. I seriously doubt that they would go to the trouble of writing a ticket and mailing it to some anonymous owner over something as that.

Or if they really wanted to bust chops, they would just simply wait at the edge of the parking lot for all of the offenders to pull on out.

I am sure there are different variants is in different parts of the country, and different parts of the world, but I do know that there are certain violations that you can be ticketed for simply by being in view of an officer or even the general public. I lived in a town once that if you had a car parked in your driveway with in view of the road, it had to be licensed and registered. So you just never know what bylaws any local municipality might have in place. It is always just safer to follow the law in the first place. :-)

 

No (short answer).

However if they're petty a55holes, they may keep an eye out for you riding on the road in the future and pull you to check you've got it taxed.

 

Remember this one boys. As from the 1st October this year a physical tax disc will no longer be issued. Therefore any vehicle taxed after that date will not have to Display a valid tax disc but will of course still have to be taxed to be used on a public highway.

John

 

Well that's news to me John, thanks for the heads-up.

 

Thanks for all the replies, no letter from the plod so far but I'll keep you updated if I have any further complications!

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/vehicle-tax-changes