Personlised plates, confirming ownership?

[Grrrrrrr!]

Hit buy now on a set of plates on tardme, and before I go depositing monies into the account of some stranger at the other end of the country (who won't allow pick up anyway), i just want to confirm that they are the legal owner of the plates. Emailed nzta/ltsa/whatever the $&#$% they're called this week, but they are useless and haven't replied so i thought i'd ask TS how i go about this.

Plates aren't currently on a car, so the online form for checking ownership of a car doesn't look like it will work.

[wde_bdy]

Pretty sure Plates.co.nz maintain the ownership details of personalised plates. There is a form you complete and send in to change them to your name.

Callum

[Dell'Orto]

That's assuming the person selling is the original owner, often people don't seem to do ownership changes

[Grrrrrrr!]

Phoned Licensys today, and managed to get out of the operator that the owners of the plate had phoned yesterday to get transfer of ownership form so all looks legit. Also got a response from nzta, as useful as tits on a bull as usual.