Roads Act, 1920

Registration and identification marks.

3 Edw. 7. c. 36.

6.(1) On the first issue by a county council of a licence under section thirteen of the Finance Act, 1920, as amended by this Act, for a vehicle it shall be the duty of the council to register the vehicle in the prescribed manner without any further application in that behalf by the person taking out the licence, and, subject to the provisions of this section, every such council shall assign a separate number to every vehicle registered with them, and a mark indicating the registered number of the vehicle and the council with which the vehicle is registered shall be fixed on the vehicle or on any other vehicle drawn by that vehicle or on both in the prescribed manner:

Provided that any number which has been assigned to a motor car under section two of the Motor Car Act, 1903, and which is the registered number of that car on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, shall be treated as having been assigned to the car under the provisions of this section and no new number shall be assigned to such a car.

(2) If the mark to be fixed in accordance with this Act is not so fixed, or if, being so fixed, it is in any way obscured or rendered or allowed to become not easily distinguishable, the person driving the vehicle shall for each offence be liable on summary conviction in respect of the first offence to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, and in respect of a second or subsequent offence to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds:

Provided that a person charged under this section with obscuring a mark or rendering or allowing it to become not easily distinguishable, shall not be liable to be convicted on the charge if he proves that he has taken all steps reasonably practicable to prevent the mark being obscured or rendered not easily distinguishable.

A person shall not be liable to a penalty under this section if he proves that he has had no reasonable opportunity of registering the vehicle in accordance with this section, and that the vehicle is being driven on a public road for the purpose of being so registered.