Cherished Number Plates News

Number Plate Sells for £250,000 at DVLA auction

02 December 2008

The eagerly anticipated plate, ‘1 RH’ which went on sale last week, has been sold at auction for a massive £250,000. The now proud owner is a retired businessman from Surrey. The plate was expected to go for around 150,000 say auctioneers, however after intense bidding, one by one the interested parties dropped out leaving Rob Haverson the proud owner.

Rob Harverson, 47 in early retirement, paid a total of £247,652.50 for his new registration plate 1 RH. This massive amount of money is more than thirty times the reserve price, which was on the plate.

Within the confines of the auction, the bidding intensified eventually leading to the now proud owner out-bidding Richard Harris who is a well-known businessman from Skegness.

A spokesperson for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said they were stunned at the price of one of its last "jewels in the crown". They have recently sold numerous plates, many of which have been covered here at cherished-number-plates.co.uk and have released new reg types such as the recent release of the eagerly awaited ‘F’ plates.

This plate was one of 1,600 prestigious registrations being sold at a three-day DVLA event at the Tankersley Manor Hotel, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Mr Harverson said: "I came with £150,000 to spend but, in the end, I was just determined to buy 1 RH and nothing was going to stop me.

"Richard made me sweat a little but it is the ultimate registration for me."

In total, the breakdown of the total sum came to £197,000, plus the Auctioneers commission, then came the added VAT and then the merger £80 transfer fee to top it all off.

Damian Lawson, marketing manager for DVLA Personalised Registrations, said: "I'm absolutely delighted for the agency. The sum 1 RH achieved far exceeded our expectations."