Burnham Market man stole number plates to delay car insurance cost, court told

A “dumb” bid to delay paying car insurance led to drug-driver being banned from the roads, Lynn magistrates heard yesterday.

Adam Workman used number plates which he’d stolen from two cars in Lynn – putting different ones on the front and rear of his Vauxhall Vectra.

Chairman of the bench John Hare told him: “It wasn’t just a stupid act, it was dumb.”

Police saw Workman in the car just after midnight on August 17 and the rear number plate was known to have been stolen.

The 26-year-old was stopped in Highgate, said prosecutor Stacey Cossey, and it was noted that the front plate was different and it too did not match the car. Police also found 22.2 grammes of cannabis in the car.

Workman failed a roadside drug swipe and was arrested. A later evidential test showed 2.3 micrograms of a cannabis derivative in his blood, slightly over the legal limit of two.

The court also heard that in the early hours of October 30, Workman was asleep in the Vectra in Wormegay when a check by police showed that the number plates came up with a different vehicle. The plates had been stolen on October 16.

Miss Cossey said Workman, of Church Walk, Burnham Market, said in interview that he had been living in his car and was “remorseful”.

Workman, who had pleaded guilty to a single charge of theft, driving with no insurance and fraud by false representation at an earlier hearing, also admitted two further charges of theft, drug-driving, driving with no insurance and possession of a class B drug at Monday's hearing.

Alison Muir, mitigating, said the first number plates episode with different ones on the front and rear was “very unsophisticated”.

“He was stealing the number plates because he couldn’t afford insurance and thought it would tide him over until such time as he could,” she added.

She said her client, while at the police station, had taken the opportunity to gather some leaflets, including Julian Support, to help him change his ways.

Workman was banned from driving for 12 months and given a 12-month community order with 80 hours’ unpaid work. He was fined £200 for possession of the cannabis and £200 for the fraud offence.

He was ordered to pay a total of £80 compensation, £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge. There was no separate penalty for the two counts of having no insurance but his licence will be endorsed.