Number Plates News

Not So Lucky Seven

23 October 2009

US motorist, Scottie Roberson, has so far accumulated parking fines totalling a staggering £11,000 from the authorities in Birmingham, Alabama.

The disturbing thing is that he has only visited the city once, and that was five years ago.

So, what's going on? Well, the reason for the error is quite novel: The Birmingham police decided, some time ago, that a convenient procedure to log unknown registrations was to enter seven 'Xs' in the appropriate boxes on their data input forms.

It seems that these entries have been taken literally by over-zealous administrators who promptly dispatched the fixed penalty notices to the owner of the vehicle registered as 'XXXXXXX'

Step forward, Mr Roberson. Whilst it might have seemed a good wheeze at the time to purchase such a distinctive plate, the hapless driver now receives up to ten tickets every day.

Former custom car builder, Scottie, whose plate marks both his nickname, 'Racer X' and his lucky number, '7', may take some consolation from the lady at the end of the telephone line at police headquarters, who told him not to worry because they didn't have the manpower to arrest him!

A spokesman said "Maybe we need to go with nine Xs, or maybe we just need to leave that part blank altogether."

This tale must rank right up there with the story of the Polish motorist, a Mr 'Prawo Jazdy' - the scourge of the Irish police - who gave false addresses on more than 50 separate occasions. Attempts to track him down were finally abandoned when it became apparent that the officers had all read the Polish words for 'Driving Licence' as the offender's name.