Jeremy Clarkson: Police consider even more offensive number plate found in Top Gear car 'another insult to the people of Argentina'
Officers discovered a pair of plates spelling 'BE11 END' inside the car, which was abandoned near the Chilean border by the Top Gear team
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Your support makes all the difference.Jeremy Clarkson’s Porsche, which inflamed Argentinian locals with its Falklands war referencing number plate, had an even more "offensive" registration set hidden in the boot.
Police in Argentina discovered a pair of plates spelling 'BE11 END' inside the car, which was abandoned near the Chilean border by the Top Gear team as they fled the country in fear of being stoned to death.
An angry mob had been whipped up in the South American country, apparently because locals had considered the 'H982FKL' number plate on the vehicle’s exterior a reference to the 1982 conflict between Britain and Argentina.
But, according to a "local official" quoted by The Mirror, the Argentines are no less riled by the second set, and perceive it as another pre-planned slight by the show’s producers.
"We know bellend doesn’t mean the end of the bell and is a word used instead to describe the head of the penis which is often employed as an insult in England," they were quoted as saying.
"We regard it as another insult to the people of Argentina.
"We’re sure the Top Gear team were planning another provocation with the number plate in the same way they provoked us with the one referencing the Falklands War."
A spokesperson for Top Gear has since confirmed to The Mirror that the two additional ‘BE11 END’ plates, one white and one yellow, were indeed in the car, but said that they were not used in any part of the filming for the BBC2 series.
"It was originally intended to be in the programme's final scene, a game of car football, but that ending has changed," they added.
The term 'bellend' is a popular one between the Top Gear presenters.
In May, Clarkson’s co-star James May described his colleague as a "monumental bellend" on Twitter "but not a racist" following the emergence of footage that appeared to show Clarkson reciting a politically incorrect nursery rhyme.
Earlier this week, Clarkson described bravely hiding under his bed as the hotel he was staying in was surrounded by a furious group of protestors.
"There is no question in my mind that we had walked into a trap," Clarkson told the Sunday Times.
"Make no mistake lives were at risk. Bonnets were banged, abuse was hurled. The police arrived and immediately breathalysed us.
"Richard Hammond, James May and I bravely hid under the bed in a researcher’s room as protesters went through the hotel looking for us. The car park was filling up. This was starting to get ugly."
"This was not a jolly jape that went awry," he wrote. "For once, we did nothing wrong. We had planned a good ending to the show. But thanks to the government’s foolishness, it’s now even better.
"They threw us out for political capital. Thousands chased crew to border. Someone could have been killed.
"My profound thanks to all the people who helped. And to the sensible Argentinians who have apologised."
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