The front of the car looks different from most in the province: sleek baby blue paint, a shiny BMW hood ornament, blackened intake ports, and instead of a government-issued stamped white metal licence plate, there was a sticker resembling one.
South Simcoe Police said they stopped a 36-year-old Bradford man on Holland Street on Sunday and found a white sticker resembling an Ontario licence plate on the front bumper of his BMW instead of an actual plate.
Sgt. David Phillips said the motorist was spotted by an officer doing traffic enforcement in the area where he was stopped.
It is the driver’s fourth offence.
He was charged with failure to display two plates under the Highway Traffic Act. A first offence is punishable with an $85 fine.
“Because the driver has had previous offences for plate violations, the officer used his discretion to issue a summons to send the driver to court,” Phillips wrote in an email to CTV News Toronto.
The driver will appear in court in September to answer to the charge. The total fine owing will be determined by a judge.
Ontario is one of only four Canadian provinces — including Manitoba, New Brunswick and British Columbia — to require licence plates on the front and back of a vehicle.
Police in South Simcoe say the placement of a sticker in lieu of a plate is not that common, but it is done by “owners of high-end vehicles” who “get their license plates scanned, make a sticker and put that on their vehicles” instead of a plate.
