Custom Car Magazine SUMMER SHOW SPECTACULAR Back Issue

I read with interest the forum posting from a hot
rodder recounting his experience as he was driving
home from the Nationals on Bank Holiday Monday.
Understandably, he became jittery when the blue lights
came on behind him signalling that he should pull over.
Fearing the tug was down to his car’s lack of fenders, this
particular Model A driver was surprised when the traffic
officer told him the ANPR check on the car had thrown up that
it had no MoT. The officer looked blank when the driver told
him that as his car was a ’31 vintage it was MoT exempt and,
after radioing through to his base, it seemed nobody there
knew anything about this MoT exemption either. Fortunately,
this particular traffic officer was savvy enough to then look
it up on Google and, once satisfied the driver was telling the
truth, the hot rod was allowed to continue on its journey.
That may have been a one-off occurrence but, when I checked
on the National Policing Improvement Agency website, it mentions
that the ANPR image is checked against the Back Office Facility
database, not the DVLA database, so it could well be that other
drivers of pre-’60 vehicles may get pulled for ‘no MoT’ in the
future. Then there are the police vans you see parked on the
roadside with a camera protruding towards the flow of traffic.
With such cameras photographing hundreds of registration plates
each hour, there’s also the possibility of a letter dropping on
your door mat issuing you with a summons for driving a vehicle
with no MoT, even though by law your vehicle is MoT exempt.
Okay, you can argue against such a summons, but do you really
need the hassle? From the outset of this new legislation we’ve
recommended you still put your pre-’60 vehicle through a voluntary
MoT test each year, but that makes even more sense now.
Unless, of course, you enjoy the attention of the boys in blue.