Dubai Business Number Plate Buyer Shells Out For Matching Mobile Number
Reg Plates ArticleDubai Business Number Plate Buyer Shells Out For Matching Mobile Number
Remember how Indian businessman and Dubai expat Balwinder Sahani spent Dhs33 million for the D 5 reg number plate last year? Well, he’s now spent Dhs4.25 million on a mobile phone number.
That’s right, Sahani spent more than Dhs4 million to nab the number at an auction at the Grand Hyatt on Saturday.
What is the number 058-8888888. Ironically, it’s unlikely that Sahani will be able to actually use the number.
“I can never use this number. I got it in my hands at 8.30pm today and till now, within just 2 hours, I’ve received 1,000 calls,” the owner of RSG International told the Khaleej Times.
Think this is a huge waste of money? Well, hold that thought, as it turns out all money spent by Sahani at the auction will go to charity (with du being a semi-government company).
It seems Sahwani is a bit of a profesh’ collector, as he told Gulf News last year when he bought the famous D 5 number plate (which now adorns a Rolls Royce): “I like collecting unique number plates and I am proud to have got this number. I like number nine and D 5 adds up to nine, so I went for it.”
He also spent Dhs25 million on a O9 plate in 2015. “I have collected 10 number plates so far and I am looking forward to having more. It’s a passion.”
More Britons are personalizing their car number plates than ever before, according to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). In the past year, the Treasury made a record total of £102 million — £15 million more than 2014-2015 from an estimated 335,000 registration plates purchased by drivers in the U.K.
The DVLA started selling personalised number plates in 1990, with just 77,745 purchased between 1995-96 — four times less than today. At present, the DVLA boasts 47 million plates on offer to drivers across the country, which can be bought online or at auctions.
The DVLA says almost 335,000 registrations were sold in the last year – more than four times the figure in the mid-Nineties.
A spokesman for the AA welcomed the news, saying: “It puts a smile on people’s faces and raises money for the exchequer – what’s there to complain about?
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