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Number plates withdrawn from auction over offence fears
THE Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has withdrawn two vehicle number plates from an auction which starts in Yorkshire today over fears they could cause offence.
Officials have ordered the registration 1 NLA to be removed because it could be doctored to read "INLA" – the acronym for the outlawed Irish National Liberation Army.
A plate reading PAK 11N has also been pulled from the event, due to start this morning at Tankersley Manor, near Barnsley, because of possible racist interpretation.
The 1 NLA plate was due to go under the hammer with a reserve price of 3,200 tomorrow, while the entire three-day sale of 1,500 numbers is expected to raise 1.9m.
PAK 11N had a reserve of 400 for its auction on Friday and had been passed for sale along with 1 NLA by a DVLA committee that considers the merits of each plate.
The proprietary steering group is meant to police a ban on potentially offensive number plates that could spell out words related to terrorism, religion, sex or other provocative themes.
Just over a month ago the DVLA axed two plates – F4 GOT and D1 KES – from its last auction following a complaint from gay rights charity Stonewall.
The DVLA's personalised registrations marketing manager, Damian Lawson, said : "Missing the potential significance of these particular marks was human error. They have been removed as a precaution."
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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