Ok, so coppers called and apparently one of the 1 in the number plate has been registered as the letter i.
Insurance confirmed the driver is insured.
Police said they'll make enquiries with DVLA to understand why they allowed an ambiguous number plate to be registered.
Apparently, if caught speeding, they wouldn't take any action rather then hotlist the number plate because a vertical line on a UK number plate is always read as a 1 by machines as well as any reasonable person.
Fecked up Britain!
Yes, but somehow it got registered on the DVLA database like that, so technically he hasn't done anything wrong.
Now I know why when I was taking his details and I asked for his number plate he said "you've taken a picture of it"
They know all the loopholes!
Not true in my case. I made a claim 5 years ago. I was found not at fault, and got my excess back. But it still counted as a claim. My NCD went back to 0. It's only "unaffected" if you pay for protected no claims. At least that's how it was with Tesco Insurance.
A highly detailed guide to the formats that UK number plates have taken over the years since their inception. Includes dateless, suffix, prefix and current-style.
netplates.co.uk
It's not a dateless (pre 1963) number plate.
As a double check, it's worth bearing in mind that a dateless plate could only contain a maximum of six characters plus a space. If you see a UK plate with seven characters (not including the space), it can't be dateless.