JB 1 sets new UK auction price record
Readers may have seen our recent post covering the auction sale of the registration number JB 1. At a sale conducted by Bonhams and held at Goodwood Festival of Speed on 11 July 2025, JB 1 broke the UK record for the most money paid for a private registration in a public sale, when the purchaser paid £608,600 excluding VAT.
The coveted number 1, combined with the high population count for the initials JB, guaranteed lively competition for the outstanding registration.
The previous record for the highest publicly disclosed sale price for a personal registration was the £518,480, achieved in 2014 by 25 O, which was purchased by Ferrari dealer John Collins.
Other UK registration numbers have changed hands for substantially higher prices even than the £600k paid for JB 1, but details of those plates and transactions are not in the public domain, and are protected by privacy laws. Nevertheless, the spectacular auction success of JB 1 demonstrates the continuing vitality of the private registrations market.
Calls for action on cloned number plates increase
High numbers of wrongly targeted fines continue to cause stress, inconvenience and financial loss for many innocent UK drivers.
Recently analysed data shows that known cases of number plate cloning have increased by 41% over the last five years. Cloning incidents frequently involve additional crimes such as fuel theft from petrol stations, toll and emission charge evasion and assorted driving offences. Regtransfers reported last month that up to 94% of forecourt fuel thefts go undetected.
In 2020, there were 7,377 reported cases of car/plate cloning; that rose to 10,461 in 2024. In the first six months of 2025, the number of reported cases exceeded 3,500 and continues to rise. The DVLA has stringent requirements for the registration of number plate suppliers, but the availability of duplicated and faked plates remains a problem as unregistered suppliers continue to make cloned plates available.
Amongst calls for action are those from former assistant police chief constable Tony Porter and motoring journalist Abigayle Andre. However, feasible and practical suggestions of what form such action might take are lacking. Ms Andre said, "I think what's really important is that the police, the DVLA and the government need to come together and find another solution other than a number plate to identify cars."
Critics of that idea point out that such a change could make driving abroad a difficult prospect as other countries still rely on number plates to identify cars. Law enforcement and speed enforcement cameras rely on visual means to detect offences: if not number plates, what form of visual element could be added to vehicles. Changing to technological measures such as transponders and trackers would probably be hackable or spoofable, and would not satisfy the need for a visual means of identification.
Meanwhile cloning, wrongful fines and calls for action continue.
Car tax blow awaits many drivers of older vehicles
The impact of changes to vehicle excise duty ("car tax") rules have been much publicised due to changes in the amounts payable by drivers of electric vehicles. However, the revisions have also dealt a blow to drivers of older cars, with possible bills of up to £600 a year predicted to hit some car owners.
Cars made between 1985 and 2001 are taxed according to their engine size. However, vehicles registered after 2001 are taxed depending on their carbon emissions. Owners of the cars with the highest emissions pay more tax than those with lower emissions, and the amount of that tax can run to many hundreds of pounds.
Drivers with '01' to '17' and '51' to '67' number plates could be in for a shock when it's time to renew their car tax. However, vehicles registered after 2017 will pay a standard VED fee, currently £195 per year.
The vehicles affected by the emission-linked vehicle excise duty charges are those whose number plates contain the following numerical date codes:
| Numerical date code | Year |
|---|---|
| 01/51 | 2001 |
| 02/52 | 2002 |
| 03/53 | 2003 |
| 04/54 | 2004 |
| 05/55 | 2005 |
| 06/56 | 2006 |
| 07/57 | 2007 |
| 08/58 | 2008 |
| 09/59 | 2009 |
| 10/60 | 2010 |
| 11/61 | 2011 |
| 12/62 | 2012 |
| 13/63 | 2013 |
| 14/64 | 2014 |
| 15/65 | 2015 |
| 16/66 | 2016 |
| 17/67 | 2017 |
Plate crime roundup
National and local news have, as usual, reported a number of incidents involving people who thought that using faked or cloned plates would allow them to evade penalties for other offences.
Thames Valley Police have appealed for help identifying a man who may be able to help with their enquiries regarding an incident of fraud at the Coop petrol station in Chinnor, Oxfordshire around 6.30pm on May 9 2025. The police have released a CCTV image of the person they would like to speak to.
Police said that an individual visited the Coop store on Oakley Road, Chinnor in a vehicle bearing fake number plates. The offender filled up his car with fuel and then left without paying. Anyone with information is asked to call 101 or make an online report via the Thames Valley Police website, quoting crime reference number 43250227728.
More information and the image of the man police want to speak to may be found on the Thames Valley Police website.
A man who stole a digger from a building site in Middlesbrough was caught by police when they spotted him driving a stolen truck bearing cloned number plates. Five more fake number plates were found inside the black Toyota truck. The driver, Tyson Petch, told police he had received the truck as payment for stealing a digger.
Teesside Crown Court was told that the black Toyota truck had been stolen from a home in Gravesend in Kent, on April 5. The same vehicle had been used to steal a digger worth £30,000 from a building site in Middlesbrough on April 18. Mr Petch later pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods; driving with no insurance and to the theft of the digger.
Mr Petch has a number of previous convictions, including one for possession of cannabis, which police found in a dog kennel in his garden. However, the 2018 court case concerning the drugs possession charge made no mention of an unusually chilled-out dog…
