Driving a car with an expired license plate

[dkmlam]

My cousin was driving to work this morning at 6:30 am and CPS pulled her over because the officer noticed that the license plate was expired.

A $230 ticket was given for operating an unregistered motor vehicle. The car is actually registered, but under a different license plate because she has not had the chance to replace the old license plate (rusted on screws) after the recent purchase of the vehicle.

Are demerits taken away from her license? What are the chances of the cop showing up to the assigned court date, and what can be done?

[MGCM]

I doubt demerits will be given but it they are they will be easy to fight. She needs to goto the court date which actually isn't a "court date" it's just a day to go in and talk to the ppl behind the glass about fighting it, they send you back to wait for a crown prosecutor to call u into an office, you make a deal with them or arrange to fight the ticket.

[FraserB]

Just tell them the rusted on screws were really hard to get off and you didn't want to put the effort in to change them out.

[97'Scort]

There aren't a ton of excuses that spring to mind, unless she was literally on the way home from the registry with the new plate in the car. Even with "rusted on" screws, it wouldn't take long to get them off.

How did she even manage to get a new plate for it and keep the old ones?

[FraserB]

Originally posted by 97'Scort
There aren't a ton of excuses that spring to mind, unless she was literally on the way home from the registry with the new plate in the car. Even with "rusted on" screws, it wouldn't take long to get them off.

How did she even manage to get a new plate for it and keep the old ones?

The registry is actually pretty lax on making you hand in old plates. I still have the plates from my last two vehicles. One is actually still valid for another month.

[300zxfairlday]

same here i have like 4 or 5 plates laying around nobody has ever asked me for them back

[97'Scort]

I guess in BC it's more stringent...they demand the plates back.

[bignerd]

I believe the registries here actually charges you to destroy your plate if you return it to them, like $8 or something, OR, you can just keep it for free. Kind of ridiculous really, same thing when adding people or removing people from the vehicle registration, they want like $20, or they can give you a new plate for free....

Then they wonder why we run out of plates so fast.

Only exception are personalized plates, if you buy one you own it for life, it is never transferred to anyone else even if you turn it in.

[dannie]

Your cousin was technically illgally using a licence plate if she has it registered to another plate and kept the old one on it. Be thankful that the cop didn't issue a ticket for that.

And no, your cousin will not receive demerits for that.

[t-im]

I thought if you returned your old plates in AB you got some $ back? I also believe any old plate you have laying around you can re-register. I'm pretty sure I've done that before.

[dannie]

^ Yep, you can return your plates, but you have to pay $9.45 to do so. If you have any remaining validity on your licence plate, you will get a refund from the gov.

[theken]

Lucky she wasn't impounded. Pay the 230 and life goes on

[derran.m]

Originally posted by t-im
I thought if you returned your old plates in AB you got some $ back? I also believe any old plate you have laying around you can re-register. I'm pretty sure I've done that before.

Just went thru this when we picked up the Honda ... wife had to surrender her plate and get a new one in both our names... the registry actually told us to leave the old one on the car to get home, and they didnt say a damn thing about bringing it back in... and then a couple weeks later we got a cheque in the mail from the government for the remainder left on the old plate.

[dkmlam]

Originally posted by theken
Lucky she wasn't impounded. Pay the 230 and life goes on

She actually was impounded. Sorry, I forgot to mention that in the original post. It was ~$85 + $14 (admin fee) + $2/km.