Cars aren't cheap, and neither is their maintenance. Most drivers will admit that having your number plates replaced can be an annoying inconvenience, so much that someone put off renewing their license plates for over three decades.

Getting new plates is quite an expense, and you also have to line up at the DMV for hours.

That is why some people can't resist the temptation to drive around with expired number plates. But an Ontario resident took the cake by going for 31 years without replacing his number plates.

The Number Plates Expired In 1989

Although cops find drivers with these kinds of problems all the time, this one shocked them. They wondered how the driver managed to use expired plates for 31 years without being discovered.

What was more shocking was that the car was even younger than the license plates on it. The car was just 8 years old.

In other words, the driver had gone to a lot of lengths to avoid paying for a new license plate sticker.

Surprisingly, the driver will have to pay only $110 as a penalty for violating the Ontario Highway Traffic Act.

By doing so, he has avoided paying $3,700 over a period of 30 years. Therefore, if he had done what every good citizen would have done and replaced his plates as soon as they expired, he would have spent a small fortune.

However, he is hardly the only driver with this problem. Another police officer also posted a picture showing expired license plates from 1984.

With the rare find, Richard Hugh, the traffic officer, also shared this message:

"Hold on to your hat. Our CMV inspector got this beauty. I was still in college when this expired!"

Changing Penalties For Expired License Plates

Before getting a new license in Canada, you have to clear all pending parking ticket bills. Parked cars with expired or missing stickers face fines of $30.

Updating a license plate stick costs $240. And because of the pandemic, many officers have been going easy on drivers with stickers that have been expired for a couple of weeks.

According to Senior issues adviser, Lee Alderson:

"Documents that expired on or after March 1, 2020 will remain valid and legal past the expiry, until further notice."

But three decades is just too much.

The police in Canada decide when it's suitable to give traffic violation tickets to citizens. That is why officers still give drivers tickets despite the provisions created to ease the pressure on citizens during this pandemic.

Many people have suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and routine tasks like renewing license plates have become a huge challenge. A driver who had a run-in with a police officer who ticketed him despite the new regulations, Vereshack, explained:

"A lot of people have lost their jobs, renewing your license plate sticker isn't at the top of everyone's mind."

However, that does not excuse those who have gone for several years or even decades without renewing their license plate stickers.