The plate to isn’t really recognisable to the name of the owner, until you swap it around a bit In your imagination and add the screws slightly over helps the cause.
That’s illegal, as is spacing the letters and numbers incorrectly to spell a name, or whatever. When people do that it should also fail the MOT. That being said, you see it all the time, so the Police clearly don’t make a habit of pulling people over (could also be to do with the fact that you never see the Police these days)! I suspect that it’s one of those things that people get away with until they are pulled over for something else and then the police officer adds that to the list of offences!