Reg Plates That Will Not Be Issued By The DVLA

The September arrival of the ‘66’ number plate brought the potential for hundreds of familiar words to appear in the thousands of possible combinations of letters and numbers. With ‘66’ most closely resembling ‘GG’, many words were thrown out by the latest update and the DVLA has had to ban any that could cause offence before they head onto the street.

A full list hasn’t been published, but the DVLA has said ‘BU66 ERS’, ‘DO66 ERS’, and ‘OR66 ASM’ have been added to the list of banned plates. In line with the bi-annual plate change, DVLA censors convene twice a year to cast judgment on which potential new plates are too incendiary to grace a new car.

Any plate that’s explicit or could cause political, racial or religious upset are banned, with a spokeswoman commenting: “There’s nothing scientific about it, it’s all done by taste, and if some slip through and we get a complaint, we take the feedback on board.”

The entire list of redacted number plates stretches to over 10 pages long – but has been withheld by the DVLA. Once banned, number plates always stay off limits, so don’t expect to see ‘VA61 ANA’ or ‘CR16 PLE’ the next time you head down the motorway. If an offensive number plate slips past the censors, the DVLA even has the power to force the recipient to hand it back.

Number plates don’t have to be rude to be banned; anything potentially racist, offensive to a religion or crime-related could be outlawed. ‘JE55 US’, ‘15 LAM’, ‘OS55 AMA’ and ‘AD13 CTS’ fall into these categories, along with any plate which could have political connotations like ‘EU16 OUT’, ‘EU16 GON’ and anything containing ‘BNP’.

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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