Northwich wine salesman Nicholas Graham Rothe was found to have false number plates on his Jaguar car.

Police were called to Church Road in Northop, Flintshire, amid reports that the registration number was being held on with tape.

It turned out that 51-year-old Rothe, of Hadrian Way, Sandiway, Northwich, had swapped the plates from his other Jaguar. The vehicle did not have any insurance.

His solicitor Elspeth Kenney told Flintshire magistrates’ court at Mold that Rothe had purchased another Jaguar because his previous vehicle was in need of repair.

Swapped the plates

But the cylinder head gasket had blown, it needed an MOT and he foolishly swapped the plates from the other vehicle which was legal.

“He is the first to concede that his decision making was extremely poor,” she said. “He did not think it though and in his ignorance of the law did not realise that what he was doing was illegal and fraudulent.”

Rothe was a wine consultant who needed a vehicle for his work which meant travelling throughout Wales and the North West of England.

He was fined £200 with £85 costs and six penalty points were imposed on his driving licence.