A “classic of the genre” can be called the use by car owners of all kinds of camouflage materials and objects from the trash that come to hand to hide the license plates of their cars from the glass “eye” of the parking lot. “Soldier’s ingenuity” suggested covering part of the number in a street parking lot with a piece of paper, a plastic bag, or a fallen leaf if it happened in the fall. This method worked until the city authorities hired a staff of foot inspectors who, upon seeing the covered license plate of a toll car standing in the toll zone, manually remove the “foreign body” and photograph the license plate of the disguised car using a service gadget. In this case, a fine for non-payment of parking is sent to the cunning car owner.
The next way to get rid of the fine authorities for violations of paid parking was the method of dismantling the license plate of the car. The car owner parked the car, removed the license plate from it and calmly went about his business. After all, the law does not prohibit leaving a car without license plates. You just can't ride it. The topic has become so popular that savvy entrepreneurs have even managed to make good money by selling special magnetic state registration plates over the Internet - which are much easier to remove and install than standard ones. It worked for a while. But then the city authorities abruptly pretended that they were afraid of parked cars without license plates - supposedly they pose an increased terrorist threat.
Therefore, “for the safety of citizens,” such cars urgently need to be taken to impound lots. Someone would try to take away a truly bomb-laden car...
At the moment, the following method has become somewhat popular for hiding a license plate number. The car owner installs a set of the above-described magnetic license plates on his car and carries with him a couple of fake license plates. As a rule, these are car “license plates” of some non-existent state. During parking, real ones are replaced with “toy” ones. And there is no reason to evacuate, and there will be no fine for non-payment of parking. However, this method threatens with problems from Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, or rather its part 3: Installing knowingly false state registration plates on a vehicle promises a fine of 2,500 rubles.
The most truly dangerous, although the most elegant in appearance, way to hide in a parking lot involves the use of some technical devices - such as curtains that move over the license plate on command from a remote control, rotating frames and other “technical solutions.” If a traffic police inspector finds such a device on a parked car, then you can get by with a fine of 2,500 rubles, as mentioned above. But if the inspector waits until the car with “mechanized” license plates starts moving, its driver will face either a 5,000 fine or deprivation of his “rights” for up to three months.
The state license plate of a car is the main external attribute that allows you to identify a vehicle in a common database. Until October 15, 2013, the issuance of duplicate license plates was handled exclusively by the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate. Today, a copy of a license plate can be obtained both from the traffic police department and from a private company that has the appropriate certificate for the manufacture and issuance of such products.
Fine for driving without license plates
We are talking about driving a car that has not been registered with the traffic police and has not received a state license plate in the prescribed manner. Accordingly, the fine for driving without a license plate will be 5,000 thousand rubles. Alternatively, a more severe penalty may be applied - deprivation of a driver's license for a period of one to three months.
Sometimes a driver runs the risk of using a car with stolen or lost license plates. This situation is equivalent to operating a vehicle without a license plate and entails the consequences described above. Therefore, in case of loss or theft of a state license plate, we strongly recommend that you urgently order a duplicate from the traffic police or from a private office, which will cost you 2,000 rubles.
Driving with an unreadable license plate
Today, the fine for unreadable numbers, according to Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, is 500 rubles. The same punishment faces drivers who use duplicate license plates that do not meet current standards.
Fines for driving with false license plates
According to current legislation, the owner of a car with fake license plates, if the fact of driving is recorded, can be deprived of his driver's license for a period of 6 to 12 months. The imposed fine for installing fake numbers is 2,500 rubles for individuals, and for companies - from 400 thousand to 500 thousand rubles. In this case, the traffic police may initiate a criminal case related to fraudulent activities and deliberate misleading of law enforcement agencies.
Penalty for taped numbers
Altered or deliberately disguised license plates may result in a fine of 5,000 rubles. In special cases, at the discretion of the court, a more serious sanction is applied - deprivation of a driver's license for a period of 1 to 3 months. We are talking about drivers who, in order to complicate visual identification, stick small nets on the license plate or use tinted “safety” glass. All these tricks will lead to the mentioned penalties.
The fine for license plates for 2019 depends on the specific violation. What fine for numbers will be imposed in each case depends on whether your number is unreadable, hidden, modified, distorted or even counterfeit; and also on whether it is installed in the place provided for by the design and whether the rules for its installation have been violated.
What is a fake number? This is a license plate that does not belong to your car - that is, a number from another car or one that does not exist at all. In any case, such a number is not registered with the traffic police for your car. We will consider all cases of fines for license plates on a car in this article. According to data current for 2019, they are regulated by 4 parts of Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences.
What is the fine for unreadable numbers?
So, the very first part of Article 12.2 states that the driver is subject to a warning or a fine of 500 rubles for unreadable license plates. Please note that a fine is imposed only for driving a car with unreadable license plates or one license plate. If the car is stationary, there is no fine for this.
In what cases are numbers considered unreadable? The numbers will be recognized as such by the traffic police inspector if he fails to read at least one letter or number from a distance of 20 meters (note to Article 12.2). At the same time, the inscription “RUS” and the image of the flag may be unreadable, there is no fine for this. There is a difference in unreadability depending on the time of day. Since the front number plate is not illuminated in the dark, there is no requirement for its readability from 20 meters, but the rear number plate must be readable at any time. During daylight hours, both license plates should be readable - again, from a distance of 20 meters.
At the same time, the unreadability of numbers here does not include that due to their concealment and modification. The reasons for unreadability can be, for example, the following:
- the room is covered in dirt, snow, etc. (not on purpose, of course)
- the number has been erased (the black letters or numbers on the number have been erased),
- something accidentally stuck to the number (precisely by accident, but this may be a controversial point).
What is the fine for license plates installed in violation of GOST?
The same part of the article provides for a similar fine of 500 rubles for numbers that are installed in violation of the requirements of GOST R 50577-93. The list of such requirements is quite broad, but quite understandable and memorable.
Let's list how it is prohibited to install license plates in order to get fined for incorrectly installed license plates:
The fine here is also provided only for driving a car with such violations.
What is the penalty for hidden numbers?
Hiding numbers in 2019 is punishable by more severe penalties. And a fine is not the only punishment here. For a deliberately hidden license plate, a fine of 5,000 rubles or deprivation of rights for 1-3 months (by decision of the official or judge considering the case) is imposed under Part 2 of Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Only driving a car with hidden license plates is punishable in the same way.
Meanwhile, the line between hiding the number from being readable and making the license plate unreadable is quite thin. And the main factor here is precisely the intentionality of the concealment. If the room was deliberately splashed with mud or snow, then this is a cover-up; if by chance, then an unreadable number.
A reasonable question - how will the traffic police inspector determine whether the number is hidden intentionally or unintentionally? Alas, but at your own discretion. According to the Code of Administrative Violations, the composition of many violations and the driver’s guilt in them are determined by the body considering the case based on personal conviction, but having comprehensively and most fully considered all the circumstances and evidence (26.11 of the Administrative Code). You, if a decision is made not in your favor, can appeal such decisions.
Concealing a number includes such actions and circumstances as:
- use of curtains on rooms;
- the use of reflective film (the above GOST generally prohibits applying any coating to the number);
- covering the numbers with any objects (paper, rag, etc.);
- deliberately staining the license plates with mud, snow, clay, etc.;
- and another case described below...
Fine or deprivation of rights for upside down numbers
The fact is that such a “life hack” as inverted numbers, which allows you to avoid punishment from auto-fixation cameras, is practically not described anywhere in legislative acts. GOST for license plates also does not prescribe that the numbers must be placed so that they are not read upside down or that the back and front parts of the license plate must not be swapped.
And here the issue is not so easily resolved, including in practice. If the number is turned upside down, then the punishment for this can be either under Part 1 or Part 2 of Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences. At the same time, logic dictates that there may not be a violation at all in this case. The fact is that an upside down number is quite readable, and the inspector doesn’t even need to break his neck to do this - everyone can read the text upside down.
On the other hand, GOST stipulates that the white stripe of the Russian flag should be on top and the red stripe on the bottom:
The image of the State Flag of the Russian Federation should be a rectangle with equal horizontal stripes: the top stripe is white, the middle stripe is blue and the bottom stripe is red.
But here again, with the violation, not everything is so simple. This note in GOST refers to the installed types of license plates themselves and has nothing to do with the requirements for their installation on a car. That is, the flag still remains in the correct position relative to the top and bottom edges of the number itself - it’s just that the number is hung upside down on the car. Simply put, the white stripe of the flag is on top of the number (but from below towards the road), and this GOST clause refers specifically to the position relative to the number.
But having an upside-down license plate with the front side facing the car, when its back side is visible, can be punishable by Part 2 of Article 12.2 with possible deprivation of rights. This is because in this case there is a deliberate intention to hide the number. That is, the official examining the case in practice usually concludes that a license plate deliberately directed with its front side towards an obstacle is an obvious concealment of the number.
What is the fine if numbers are placed on glass?
For driving a vehicle whose license plates are installed outside the place provided by the design, in 2019 you will also be punished under Part 2 of Article 12.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Including if you put the license plates behind the glass in the car, and even if they are clearly visible from 20 meters away.
But what to do if there are no places provided by the design of the car at the moment. For example, if you removed the bumper or it was broken, and the numbers are installed on the bumper? Unfortunately, it is prohibited to travel in this case. Dura lex - sed lex (from Latin "the law is harsh, but it is the law").
What is the penalty for false numbers?
But the most severe punishment in terms of car license plates awaits the driver for driving with false license plates. Let’s imagine a not very common situation: entry into the closed territory of an organization using passes issued for a car number, and a camera that records the number and automatically opens the barrier, if there is one in the database. You arrived in a different car, but took with you the number registered in the database and put it on top of the current number in order to drive through the barrier.
If such an action is seen by a traffic police officer, then two punishments await you at once: the first - for the very fact of installing false license plates, the second - for driving with false license plates. For installation you will face a fine of 2,500 rubles, but for management - deprivation of rights for a period of six months to a year.
Table of fines for numbers
The table below shows all fines and other preventive measures relevant for 2019 regarding violations of license plates, including those not described above.
| Violation | Punishment |
|---|
Open tests of common video recording cameras took place at the Moscow Raceway, where representatives of public organizations were invited, including the well-known Blue Buckets. Four complexes resisted the inventive “violators” - “Strelka”, “Avtouragan”, “Cordon” and “Krechet”. Naturally, the greatest attention was focused on Strelka, which in recent years has filled the roads of Moscow and the Moscow region. The principle of operation of all types of cameras is the same - measuring instantaneous speed; they differ only in technical subtleties.
Technologies of deception
Among the ways to deceive the cameras were both standard ones, such as covering part of the license plate with a piece of paper, and very unusual ones, for example, a second false registration plate attached to the radiator grille. By the way, he still failed to deceive any of the systems - they all accurately identified the required number. But they couldn’t cope with the upside-down camera number - it was immediately classified as unreadable. True, such extreme ingenuity in real conditions can end badly at the very first traffic police post - you will have to pay a fine for unreadable numbers.
The main disappointment for car owners may be that the most common way to avoid a fine - a leaf pasted onto one of the symbols of the license plate (it does not matter whether it is a maple leaf or a sheet of paper) is completely useless. The fact is that all cameras are equipped with special infrared emitters, and a thin barrier in the form of a leaf is not a hindrance for them. But something thicker, for example, cardboard, can already resist the “probing” rays.
The video recording systems were unable to identify those numbers in which at least one symbol was painted over or discolored (this was done with ordinary putty), as well as those on which the relief was destroyed. Cameras are powerless in these cases, even though the human eye can easily identify the number. However, the problem will most likely be solved when an employee of the information processing center gets down to business, because that is where numbers are sent in which the camera cannot recognize just one character.
According to the test results, all cameras turned out to be almost equally unprepared to completely overcome the disguise of license plates, which drivers sometimes resort to, and lost with a score of 10:14.
Work on mistakes
According to camera developers who were present at the tests, all identified deficiencies in their systems are planned to be eliminated in the near future. So, they want to teach cameras to distinguish the color, make, and possibly model of a car, then if there is “doubt” about a particular license plate, the system will be able to check all possible options in the database and select the right one. In addition, the work of operators who double-check camera readings will be organizationally improved.
The developers considered the main problem to be poor maintenance of video systems. The same “Strelki” simply rarely wash, because of this, over time they begin to record the number incorrectly or go completely blind. Therefore, it is proposed to legislate the need to maintain automatic violation recording systems.
Verdict
Editor:
- Yes, tests have shown that technologies are imperfect and can be deceived. However, it is unlikely that anyone will dare to use such blatant tricks on the road. So drivers who have passed the tests should not take them as a call to action. Rather, they became a useful lesson for developers of control systems, showing that a computer cannot yet completely replace the human eye and brain.
It is a pity that the testing did not involve complexes that measure the average speed of the car, rather than the instantaneous speed. This could really be useful, because they are already being actively installed on the roads of Moscow and the region, but no one yet knows what to expect from them and how accurately they work.