The DVLA withdrew two number plates from their latest auction (3/12/2009) for fear they may cause offence.
The registration 1 NLA was removed because it could be made to read 'INLA' which is the acronym for the outlawed Irish National Liberation Army that assassinated Conservative MP Airey Neave with a car bomb at the House of Commons in 1979.
The sale would have contravened a long-standing ban on plates associated with terrorists and could have outraged the families of the people killed by the paramilitary group during the Troubles in Northern Ireland .
PAK 11N was pulled because it could be made to read 'PAKI IN' which includes term of abuse often directed at immigrants from the South Asian Islamic Republic.
A senior DVLA executive said "human error" was to blame for the
registrations slipping through the net.
1 NLA was due to be auctioned with a reserve price of £3,200 on the second day of the three-day sale of 1,500 numbers expected to raise a total in the region of £2 million.
But previous experience suggests that the final bid may have been higher. It would almost certainly have raised a five-figure sum at the auction at Tankersley Manor, Barnsley, South Yorks.
PAK 11N was due to be auctioned on Friday and had a reserve of £400. Both number plates had been passed for sale by a DVLA internal standards committee that considers each registration prior to sale.
The withdrawals come just two months after the DVLA was forced to remove from sale two homophobic plates - F4 GOT and D1 KES - from its last auction following a complaint from gay rights charity Stonewall.
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Its 'proprietary steering group' is in place to sensor
number plates that could be altered to spell out potentially offensive words .
"Missing the potential significance of these particular marks was human error. They have been removed as a precaution in case they cause offence,"
"More attention is being paid by the steering group for future sales. Out of the thousands of marks we sell, one or two may slip through the net.
"Some people may see a registration as offensive. Some people may not. We have to be very, very careful now." said Damian Lawson,
DVLA Personalised Registrations marketing manager.
Since 1989 when the cherished numbers scheme was first launched, three million personalised plates have been sold raising £1.3 billion. Sales are now estimated to generate between 4 and 5 million pounds a month.
The first DVLA auction was held at Christies in London where 74 registrations went up for sale including 1A for £160,000, 1 T (£56,000) and MUS 1C (£65,000) and more than 120 auctions have been held since.
The record sales price for a
registration plate at a DVLA auction is £440,625 (£375,000 plus VAT) bought by Mr. Afzal Khan in January, 2008.
Click Here To see BBC News ReportThe DVLA list of banned registrations includes 054 MA, HE58 OLA and BU58 OMB plus all plates beginning with JE and ending HAD.
The Agency has been accused of being a spoil sport for banning the sale of much less offensive sequences like 59 ANK, 59 ERM, BO10 CKS and P10 NKA but I think in the future we may well see these plates either returned to availability or put under the hammer.
Reg
