WC66 ENG England Number Plate For Sale

Sir Geoff Hurst has been revealed as the anonymous buyer of a 'world cup winning' registration plate - after bidding for it in his barber's in Cheltenham.

The WC66 ENG plate was one of the highest profile registrations to be sold by DVLA Personalised Registrations last year.

It coincided with the 50th anniversary of England's only World Cup success - and when Adam Griffiths auctioned it off he said he was "delighted to sell an iconic registration to clearly a true England supporter".

However, he didn't realise at the time the buyer was Sir Geoff Hurst.

Details have now emerged of how the English sporting legend, who lives in Cheltenham, ended up buying the plate - and it is only thanks to his hairdresser.

Sir Geoff said: "I went into my barber's in Cheltenham and he said he saw on the news that the WC66 ENG plate was coming up for sale.

"I'm always up for a bit of fun and I just thought 'why not' and managed to register to bid with very little time to spare."

The hat-trick hero, 75, ended up winning the auction and paid £4,346 for the registration, which is one of a number of personalised plates in his collection.

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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