LOAD3D! £92m windfall from car number plates

Once they were novelty items seen only on luxury cars. But in recent years personalised number plates have proliferated rapidly as image-conscious car owners try to make their motoring mark.

Such is demand for the unique plates that the trade in them has become big business for the commercial firms that sell them to individuals and companies, and to the Government.

On current trends, their sale this year alone will give the Treasury a £100m windfall. Figures show that 188,800 car owners bought individual registrations from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in 2001-02, netting the state £91.8m, a rise of 15 per cent on its income of £79.6m on the previous year.

Since the sale of never-used numbers dating from the 1920s started in 1988, it has proved a little-noticed but lucrative earner for the Treasury, bringing in a total of more than £600m.

Their sale by the DVLA over the internet has only increased sales. The agency offers motorists a choice from the millions of registrations on its database, starting from £250 or £499 for the new-style plates launched last year.

The DVLA holds back some of the most unusual – and punning – combinations of numbers and letters, which are offered at auction about six times a year. About 800 go under the hammer each time, selling for an average of £450, but on five occasions prices of £100,000 have been reached.

Growing numbers of drivers are also snapping up "comic" registrations, with four-figure sums paid this year for V5 OPPY (v soppy), M15 USA (Miss USA) and C6 UPE (coupe). And more and more companies now trade in eye-catching registrations, cashing in on the doubling of prices for "classic" registrations in five years.

Paul Watters, head of road and transport policy at the Automobile Association, said: "People like these number plates because they are distinctive and they are numbers people can easily remember. Some people are passionate about their cars and they wear their new plate with pride. Equally others are disdainful and wonder how they can spend so much money on plates."

He urged the Government to return some of the money it had collected to make the DVLA's administration "more customer-friendly", rather than allowing the cash to be swallowed by the Treasury.

On a plate: the numbers game

*The highest price paid for a British registration was £231,000, by an anonymous buyer for the privilege of driving around with a number plate reading K1 NGS.

*1 A was sold for £200,000, S1 NGH for £108,000, 1 RR for £106,000 and 1 S for £100,000.

*Plates that have also fetched big sums include G1 LLY (£87,500), P1 LOT (£82,500), 1 DM (£82,000) and COL 1N (£76,500).

*Eighteen months ago, the former Aston Villa manager John Gregory was outbid when A5 TON was sold for £76,000. He had to settle for V1 LLA at a price of £44,000.