Irrespective of any legalities, somebody has had their car stolen. None of you would like to be in the same situation so please rather than launching into this guy show a bit of compassion.
Hhhmm the problem with this is that once you start playing with vin plates you are getting into a similar area IMO, if no one was prepared to buy a car clearly being driven on an incorrect vin plate there would be less of a market for stealing minis in the first place, as I said before it could be a heritage shell all legit for all I know in this case but in general for me personally I'd like to see these tax free 80s cars off the road. If people have the correct V5 its time to put them back as its doing the classic car world no good.
Quite a statement to make there, I agree that if a car is running illegally then yes it should not be on the road, however we do not know what the circumstances are with this particular car.
Also was it stolen because it had a early plate?? It could have been taken by chancers as many cars are. Not all are stolen to order. The fact this car does stand out over and above a standard mini would make it more of a target.
At the end of the day this is not a thread about whether the car was running incorrect reg for year etc, it's a thread about somebodys pride and joy that has been stolen.