Number Plate Withdrawn By The DVLA
Reg Plates ArticleNumber Plate Withdrawn By The DVLA
A number plate owner has had their number plate withdrawn by the DVLA after a member of the public complained to police that it spelt 'jihad'.
The Ford Fiesta was driven around with the personalised plate for six months before it was reported to officials.
Licence bosses have now banned the plate which was written JH11 HAD and sent the owner a replacement.
The car was reported after it was spotted driving around Newport, Gwent.
One woman who reported it to police after she saw it being driven in her home city said: "How can this be allowed with everything that is going on in the world at the moment?
"I have told the police about it and they said they would make a note of it.
"Surely this plate cannot be legal?"
A DVLA spokesman said the personalised plate had been bought in October last year and had "slipped through the net" of offensive registrations.
The spokesman said: "We try to identify all combinations that may cause offence, and on the rare occasion where potentially offensive numbers slip through the net, steps are taken to withdraw the number.
"As soon as we became aware of this last week we withdrew it and would have then sent a replacement plate."
Plates resembling the word 'jihad', which literally means striving or struggling in Arabic, and is associated with the concept of 'holy war', are unavailable, for example plates starting with JE and ending HAD.
Others which are banned include HO57 AGE, a close match to "hostage", and the chain of characters O54 MA because of its resemblance to the name Osama.
In recent years, personalised number plates have become increasingly popular in the UK. It is a vibrant market that appeals to a wide cross section of people, and because of this, the DVLA estimates that it has generated over £2 billion in revenue through the sale of personalised number plates over the past 25 years.
Of course, personalised number plates do not sell for a fixed amount of money. Instead, highly prized registrations sell for more, while the more common number plates sell for less.
Most personalised number plates sell for hundreds of pounds. In fact, this is one of the reasons why they are so popular — reg transfers are simple to process, they are statements of individuality, and they are relatively inexpensive.
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