(KUTV) If your license plate is expired, you wouldn't be surprised to get a ticket.

But dozens of Utahans have decided to Get Gephardt after they say they got tickets for expired plates even though their registration is perfectly current.

When you register your car, you get decal stickers that you put on your plate.

And anybody that's been driving a while knows the stickers usually last for years.

But Matt Gephardt recently discovered that lots of people who get brand new stickers are finding that the ink is simply washing away.

Dave Aston's license plate looks just fine – now – with a brand new year – 2013 decal.

But Dave called Matt because he says under that new 13 is a 12 that was impossible to read because the paint wore off.

It's a problem that Dave says he has seen on hundreds of plates.

And you don’t have to take his word for it.

Matt stopped his neighbor Steve as he drove by, just to check, and he too couldn’t tell what it said.

And this is not an issue isolated to Dave and Steve’s street.

Matt has heard from several people who say they were ticketed for having illegal plates all because the ink on their registration stickers rubs right off

In Salt Lake City, ticket writers like Katherene Salazar say it's a problem she sees all the time.

Faded decals but not always on the cars you might expect.

Parking enforcement boss, Ben Roberts says it has become such a problem, that he has instructed the justice court to throw out any disputed citations that show up due to a faded sticker.

And he has personally instructed several people to report the issue to the DMV.

But Charlie Roberts, who speaks for the DMV, says they had no idea there was a problem.

So Matt showed Roberts his findings.

As for why new stickers seem to have more of a problem than old stickers, Roberts says he can only guess.

As for Dave, he says watch out – unsuspecting people are getting tickets.

(Copyright 2012 Sinclair Broadcasting Group)Utahans Receive Tickets For Faded License Plate Decal