Certain Private plates
can command astonishing prices when sold, with the UK's record currently standing at £518,000 for the plate "25 O".
Sold in 2014 to a Ferrari dealer, it's believed that this plate now sits on a Ferrari 250SWB formerly owned by Eric Clapton, worth in the region of £10m.
Now, though, it's looking like this record is set to be smashed, with the latest in a line of expensive DVLA number plates expected to fetch in the region of £1m at a private auction.
This auction has fuelled plenty of controversy, as it is open only to individuals and organisations who have been invited. If the plate failed to sell at this private auction, then and only then would it be made available to the general public at auction in 2018.
The plate, which reads SR18APS, honours the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Hindu temple in Neasden, London, with its valuation having been given as £995,000. Bidding at the private auction was expected to end on Christmas Day 2017, but the outcome has not yet been revealed. The latest news was that the highest bid to date in early December was £551,000 - already smashing the previous record sum paid for a private plate.
The fact that the plate is being sold at private auction has upset members of the Hindu community, who have stated that many Shri BAPS followers have the funds to bid on the plate, but have not been invited to do so. And with no reserve value placed on the SR18APS plate, it's looking like there will be no opportunity for them to do so in 2018 either.
This isn't the first time that a private number plate has commanded a huge price within the Hindu community. In 2015, a plate reading KR15 HNA - or Krishna, the Hindu deity - was sold at auction in Chesterfield. Bidding started at £27,000, but the plate was eventually snapped up by an Indian businesswoman for a staggering £233,000 - which made it the most expensive modern plate ever sold by the DVLA at the time. At the same auction, a similar plate - KR15 HAN - also sold for £98,500.
I Spy Number Plate by I See Modern Britain licensed under Creative commons 4
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