You should ask a North Carolina legal expert about what type of violation it is to drive with revoked license plates (meaning your registration in under revocation) to be certain but from the information we tried to gather from NC laws it would appear to be a Misdemeanor and thus could come with fines and/or jail time.
Driving with revoked tags on your car would be a violation of North Carolina General Statute (NCGS) 20‑111 which discusses violations of registration provisions of NC laws. Under subsection 2 it notes that it is unlawful to display or cause or permit to be displayed or to have in possession any registration card, certificate of title or registration number plate knowing the same to be fictitious or to have been canceled, revoked, suspended or altered, or to willfully display an expired license or registration plate on a vehicle knowing the same to be expired.
[Let CarInsurance.com help you find affordable auto insurance now.] NCGS 20-176 mentions that unless a specific penalty is otherwise provided by law for this Article of the NCGS (GS 20-111 does not list a specific penalty), a convicted person is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor. Misdemeanors come with punishments that include a period of imprisonment or a fine amount that a judge can impose.
If you have not turned in your plates after a revocation of your tags due to a lapse in auto insurance than you have already have committed a Class 2 misdemeanor according to NCGS 20‑311. Here it describes the actions by the NC Division of Motor Vehicles when notified of a lapse in financial responsibility. Specifically under subsection (d) it mentions revocation notice.
This portion of NC law states that when the DMV revokes the registration of an owner's vehicle, it shall notify the owner of the revocation. The notice shall inform the owner of the need to return the vehicle's registration plate and registration card to the DMV. If the owner fails to do so it is a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Unless otherwise provided for a specific offense in NC the maximum fine that may be imposed is two hundred dollars ($200.00) for a Class 3 misdemeanor and one thousand dollars ($1,000) for a Class 2 misdemeanor. The amount of the fine for a Class 1 misdemeanor and a Class A1 misdemeanor is in the discretion of the court.
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The imprisonment time that may be handed out for misdemeanors is typically between 1 and 65 days. It is usually 1 to 30 days of jail time that the judge can hand down to someone convicted of a Class 2 misdemeanor.
The NC DMV and/or a lawyer working in this type of North Carolina law could tell you more about the penalties for driving with revoked tags and if besides a fine your driver's license could be affected by a conviction for this type of violation. Get online car insurance quotes for NC here with us. | 
