Dartford taxi driver changes number plate to 'M25 FKD'

Justin Scrutton, the owner of ingenious license plate, said he's had people honk, wave and give him thumbs up as they've driven by in recent weeks.

The not-so-subtle message behind the personalised number plate comes after years of sitting in queues along the M25 for his airport taxi service Justin Travel.

"It's one big bottleneck, and it's a constant pain in my neck," said Justin, who lives in Dartford near Bluewater.

"The traffic is awful around here and has been for years. There are times of the day when you just cannot feasibly travel, and you know if one of big crossings closes for one reason or another, no one's getting home for hours.

The Dartford Crossing

"I have to check my phone just to pop to the shops or risk being stuck in traffic for hours."

But Justin, aged 49, said that "if you can't change something you just get used to it, but you might as well make fun of it."

After coming up with the mischievous idea, he checked the see if the number was free before trading his old plate in and grabbing the new one for £250.

"When I saw it was free I thought no way, I'm definitely having that, and I wanted to take it before someone else gets the idea.

"My aim is to just want to make light of the situation, a constant pain in my neck but you can't do anything abut it so why not have some fun.

Justin lives and works in Dartford.

"It's my personal car not one I use for work, my dog car really, so I only really drive it locally. And I'm just trying to make people smile."

He said people seemed to find the number plate funny, but that he tries to avoid going on the M25 at all costs.

With traffic from London Kent and Essex all bottled into one area and on couple of crossings, Justin points out that the traffic has been getting progressively worse for years.

"It's my drivers I feel for, there's no way you'd catch my on the M25 on a Friday afternoon."

Justin said he welcomes the proposals for the new Lower Thames Crossing to lessen the load.

"They should be building a third crossing, the roads weren't designed for this level of traffic.

"Ideally it should be between Dagenham and Thamesmead as that would relieve a lot of pressure, but those plans have been shelved.

"I live in Dartford but I've also got my business here. People don't want a new crossing right next to them, but we have to realise this everyone's problem, and it's only going to get worse."