That's the thing. We aren't talking about a month where you forget to put the new sticker on. I think the claim is that he paid the registration for his Nissan Pathfinder, but he switched the license plates.
Maybe it is a California thing, but I thought that you weren't allowed to arbitrarily change license plates.
I know here, that if you get a new car, you get a new license plate. The car dealership sends in the application, and gives a temporary tag that lasts for 30 days. If you buy a used car, from an individual, the seller removes their plate before giving the car over to the buyer. The buyer has to go buy a new plate.
Otherwise, unless you switch to a specialized plate (Save the Smokies, whales, snail darters, etc) or to a personalized plate (either one costs considerably more than a basic plate) ... every year you pay for new "tags" which are nothing but little stickers with the last two digits of the next year and the month of expiration.
You get stopped by the cops, you better hope the plate matches the car and you. My Runnin' Buddy and her son both have black cars, same year, but different makes. When she picked up her new tags, she picked up her son's at the same time. She didn't know she gave him the wrong tags. He got stopped a couple of weeks ago for a taillight or headlight out, can't remember...but he's in a college town and it was 3am. By the time he was pulled over, the first cop had called in the plate number.. which didn't match and he had called for backup... 2 other police cars arrived. The first cop assumed was a stolen car. She got a phone call at 3 in the morning from the police department. Since her "story" matched her son's, and both cars were registered to the same address even though they have different last names, they let him go with a warning (fortunately he was sober...he came home a couple of days later to switch the tags.)
Maybe if you have a congressional plate, it doesn't matter if laws are broken.
