“Personal Plates Confiscated...how To Reacquire?”

Last year my 40yo old personal plates vanished from my vehicle, assumed stolen. Did all the right procedural stuff and re-ordered a replacement set, was handed a temporary set.

Prepared to wait for the 6 months but ended up taking 10 with various post-covid admin fups. Received and got them installed. Forward to the other day as when pulled over for a wee above-limit speed issue, was informed the plates were not reg'd to my vehicle. My bad as assumed this would be done internally when in fact I had needed to do this at a Service Ontario - temp plates off the reg and new (former) plates back on, et.

Officer confiscated them, but 2 tickets and a 500 tow bill later, I realized I had not inquired about how to get my bought-and-paid-for personal plates back from team OPP such that I could properly get my registration/ownership details aright! As the responsibility in this issue is on me, I'm not going to waste any time or effort in fighting it, but would be keen to know how to get my plates back and avoid having to re-order, pay again and wait again?