August 2008

Ferrari driving school sets bad example with illegal number plates

A driving school which is offering free rides in a Ferrari to students that pass their test is setting a bad example by using illegal number plates.

Road safety campaigner Andrew McGavin from BetterDrivingPlease.com said Yazz School of Motoring has made its cars’ plates illegal by altering the spacing.

And now he is appealing to the Slough firm to make the plates legal before taking any more lessons.

The motoring school hit the headlines this week with its offer to take successful pupils for a ride in their supercar upon passing their test.

Andrew said: “Yazz should be congratulated on a brilliant piece of marketing and. It is a great way to incentivise students to work hard on their driving skills and pass their test.

“But the school is also operating cars on public roads with illegal number plates. That encourages teenage learners to believe that altering number plates is cool and that the police will do nothing about it.”

Andrew added: “If new teenage drivers believe it’s OK to pick and choose which road laws they can obey, it’s more likely they could choose not to buy motor insurance or speed.”

National newspapers published pictures of the Yazz vehicles clearly displaying the illegal number plates.

The law states that letters and numbers on plates must not be altered, rearranged or misrepresented. This includes moving spacing around the plate.

Potential punishments include a fine of up to £1,000, the registration mark being withdrawn and the vehicle failing the MOT test.

The Ferrari’s plate YAZ 244 had the spacing altered to YAZ2 44, and a Nissan Micra had the plate YAZ 252 illegally altered to YAZ2 52.

The plates were reported to BetterDrivingPlease.com by one of the site’s 8,000 reporters.

More than 1.5 million people have visited BetterDrivingPlease.com to report or search through the 15,750 reports since the site was set up two years ago.

Anyone who spots bad driving can report the number plate of the offending vehicle, what happened and where. Details of all incidents reported are available for anyone to see.

Andrew covers the costs of running the website and the BetterDrivingPlease.com campaign himself, helped by a team of unpaid volunteers.

ENDS

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

• For any further information, quotes or interviews, a BetterDrivingPlease.com spokesman is available. Please email press@publicityheaven.com or call Paul Green on 08452 303049
• To find specific reports of bad driving, go to www.BetterDrivingPlease.com and enter the area in the Keyword search box
• You are welcome to publish any information you find on the website
• A factfile, logo, screenshots and other press resources are available online at http://www.betterdrivingplease.com/press.asp