Anyone recommend a good online supplier of number plates?
For a ND MX 5
Why online? Any respectable supplier should request to see your original car registration document to prevent cloning. Halfords can produce number plates while you wait if you show them the registration document.
I had my 3d gel plates made by these guys, platesforcars.co.uk. pleased with the service and the plates.
Another vote for platesforcars.co.uk from me (standard plates rather than gel, UK legal layout).
Efficient service and prompt delivery.
Cheers will have a look at them.
I have used platesforcars.co.uk and would use them again, fast and efficent service.
Ordered from them and also 2 black number plate holders.
I see that Platesforcars are selling number plates without a need for documents. Personally I feel that it should be a legal requirement for number plates to be supplied only with proof of ownership such as the vehicle registration document. I also feel that it should be a legal requirement for the number plate manufacturer to mark up the number plate with their details. It is far to easy for criminals to clone number plates. I am saying this from experience, as my wife had a very stressful experience as a result of a fraudster cloning the number plate of her car.
Anybody can get around such legalities by selling them as show plates.
My plates from platesforcars.co.uk are so marked in line with your (and the DVLAās) requirement.
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Every town Iām sure, will have a registered number plate supplier. And they will all need to see the V5 doc.
In Frome, I got mine made up in about ten minutes, from Melksham Motor Services for Ā£24.00 - my local Halfords wanted over Ā£40.00 !
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If you go to the DVLA website there is a facility for you to enter your postcode for a list of approved plate suppliers in your locale.
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Crickey! My Halfords branch did not charge anywhere near that. Must be the North/South divide. Folks in Barrow-in-Furness would never pay that much. They can buy a house for less than that!
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Thereās nothing magical about number plates - they are just a few numbers stuck on a reflective background with some clear plastic over them - so you can put as much legislation as you like in place about document production and it wonāt stop people from being able to make their own quite easily.
And when it comes to organised crime gangs cloning cars, Iād expect that they would make their own plates rather than risk getting them made elsewhere (with an audit trail back to them).
Last time I looked, you could buy all the equipment needed to produce professional number plates for under Ā£700 on eBay.
Good point but it does require more of an investment to do so, which might make the lesser crims baulk at the cost. By the way Philip, why were you looking at number plate manufacturing equipment? Are you a criminal mastermind? 
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My point is that the bad guys can buy the equipment relatively cheaply. They can then make money by selling to both criminal (the ālesser crimsā as you call them) and legitimate (car owners and small garages who just want cheap plates with the minimum of bureaucracy) customers - as well as being able to make up their own plates for whatever purpose they requireā¦
Most of my working life has been spend preventing criminal and fraudulent acts, so it irritates me when I see ineffective controls (such as requiring documentation to be provided, when it does little or nothing to stop people from producing number plates without it). Itās just āsecurity theatreā, rather than a truly effective countermeasure.
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I got mine done for my mk2.5 through mx5 City, I sent them copies of all my paperwork and they sent it through the post.
Great points Phil and I stand corrected. I understand your frustration and the reasoning behind it. Maybe number plates should be chipped like credit/debit cards with a number that ties up with the registration, details of the car (chassis number) and the owners details (plus a PIN number). Physically this should be reasonably easy to do and relatively inexpensive. The Police could use a detector and use it in conjunction with their number plate recognition system. However I am sure that the criminal masterminds would eventually find a way around even that.
Iām not sure that you actually need to throw any more technology at it. The number plate on the car should match up with the VIN - thatās all that the police need to determine, and it can be done with a simple visual check.
Having sufficient police available, and making it a priority to do these checks is an entirely different matter!
(And yes, there is a constant game of catch-up between those putting security countermeasures in place and the activities of those who wish to bypass them).
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My local motor spares makes up plates.
The guys who ownes it, Iāve known since we were young men, I went to his wedding, I went to both christenings, weāve been on holiday together with the families.
We call each other frequently for a catch up, weāve had beers together at Christmas.
You get the drift, weāve been good mates for 40 years.
But he wouldnāt make us a plate for the wifes private number transfer without seeing the necessary paperwork.
Of course jokingly i said āwhat after 40 years man and boy, you donāt trust meā
His reply was is that he had to register the make up of the plate with the DVLA.
Based on this, Iād have to suggest that platesforcars.co.uk are making plates not strictly within the law ,maybe the small print states show plates or something.