A MOTORIST has shockingly been caught out using a leaf in an attempt to cover their license plates.
The road user was nabbed by Surrey Police’s Vanguard Road Safety Team on Tuesday after they were caught driving over the speed limit on the A3 Northbound.
Following the stop, the dopey driver was then found to have covered both the front and rear number plates of their Toyota Corolla partially covered.
Images show the car after being stopped by police, with both the white and yellow number plates having the last letter covered in an attempt to avoid detection by cameras.
The letters have been covered by an individual brown leaf on each plate, which has been secured with double sided tape in an attempt to look like an accidental obscuration.
The driver was subsequently handed a fixed penalty notice (FPN) for covering their plates, as well as a traffic offence report (TOR) for breaking the speed limit.
The snap was shared to social media yesterday by Surrey Roadsafe, who work in partnership with Surrey Police, with the caption: “There are times when camouflage is needed and can look good.
“Leaves attached to your number plate with double-sided tape is neither. Vehicle stopped A3, Guildford as still visible to Vanguard RST while driving in excess of the speed limit.
“FPN for leaves and TOR for speed issued.”
The post has since received over 600 likes and dozens of comments from stunned users.
One social user wrote: “Prove the owner did it…”
Surrey Roadsafe replied: “They explained they did to the officers.”
Another commented: “New one on me…remember the flip up motor bike plates.”
Surrey Roadsafe replied: “Unfortunately still something we come across.”
A third user said: “Probably kids playing around again.”
Surrey Roadsafe again responded: “You might think, but no!”
Another user quipped: “Did you point out that if you simply leaf the file with special branch, they can do a partial search on the number plate and most likely twig whose it was?”
A fifth joked: “Were you in disb-leaf when you saw this?”
Speaking today a spokesperson for Surrey Police said: “The stop happened on Tuesday, 3 October, in the early afternoon.
“The car was seen to be driven on the A3 Northbound in excess of the speed limit and with the number plate partially covered. The vehicle was a Toyota Corolla.”
