James Bond Private Plates On Motorcycles

A BIKER has been caught by police using a James Bond-inspired gadget to conceal his number plate to avoid speed cameras.

Spanish traffic cops pulled over the motorcyclist after they noticed he was riding without a licence plate.

However, on closer inspection, the modified plate was revealed with tech straight from 007’s garage.

The Swiss rider had the ability to flip up his number plate at the press of a button to hide the reg from police or cameras.

A similar gadget was famously seen on Sean Connery’s Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger.

Bond’s number plate could spin to change to a different number to avoid being followed or tracked.

This rider didn’t quite have the same knack for getting out of trouble as 007, though.

As according to a report on the Catalan police website, using the secret gadget led to the motorcyclist’s downfall after cops in Girona noticed the rider didn’t have a licence plate.

They pursued and pulled over the motorcyclist before noticing the number plate had bizarrely re-appeared.

After a quick search, officers found the activation switch to move the plate up and down to dodge speed cameras.

A ‘runner’ left Shah Alam, Selangor last night, and arrived here as early as 1am just to hand in tender forms for individuals who wish to own the ‘AKU’ series number plates from the state.

Ahmad Saufi Abdul Rahman, 35, brought 73 tender applications sent by dignitaries and businessmen, including several ‘Datuk’.

Having worked as a runner for four years, Ahmad Saufi said the most popular choices were AKU 8055, AKU 1305 and AKU 805.

“I accepted the last tender application at 4pm yesterday. It is undeniable that at the last moment, many people sent in applications bidding for the numbers.

“The minimum amount (of the bids) was RM350 and the highest was RM30,000,” he said when met by Bernama at the Perak Road Transport Department (JPJ) office here, today.

The bidding for the AKU series number plate ended at noon today, after being opened since July 3.

Perak JPJ director Mohd Zawawi Zakaria in a press conference on July 3 said that several registration numbers which were not in the preferred numbers category were popular choices among the public, namely AKU 8055, AKU 1305 and AKU 805.

Meanwhile, a local celebrity on Instagram, Sophia Khan, 24, said it was the first time she had handed in a bid for a licence plate number, and she chose ‘AKU 50’ which symbolised addressing herself as ‘AKU SO’.

Sophia, who is of Malay, Pakistani and Australian origins and has 37,000 followers on Instagram admitted to having bid thousands of Ringgit for the number.

“I hope the number becomes mine,” she said, arriving at the tender box about 30 minutes before the close of the bidding. — Bernama

So what are the top selling number plates in the UK? The DVLA has been selling private plates to UK motorists since 1989. During this time, there have been a number of records set, but most of the top 10 have been bought in the past 15 years. Here’s what currently makes the list:

25 0 – A Ferrari dealer bought this for £518k in 2014. It is now on a £10 million Ferrari 250 SWB.
F 1 – A businessman, Afzal Khan, bought this for £440k in 2008 and put it on his McLaren-Mercedes SLR.
S 1 – This was bought in 2008 for £404k by an anonymous buyer.
1 D – Businessman Nabil Bishara bought this plate in 2009 (before One Direction was formed, so it is not a reference to the band) for £352k.
M 1 – Businessman Mike McCoomb bought this number plate in 2006 for £331k, apparently for his son, who was 10 at the time.
VIP 1 – Chelsea owner and businessman Roman Abramovich bought this plate for £285k in 2006.
51 NGH – This number plate, which looks like the surname Singh, was sold in 2006 for £254k.
1 RH – Businessman Robert Haverson bought this in 2006 for £247k.
K1 NGS – This reg plate, which looks like the word “kings”, was bought anonymously in 1993 for £231k.
1 0 – This very simple but striking number plate was bought anonymously in 2009 for £170k.

These are large amounts of money, but they are all small compared to the top-selling number plates found in other parts of the world. Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, has the record for the most expensive number plate ever sold. That number plate was a simple “1”. It was bought in 2008 by businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri for £7.25 million.

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