Special number plate fetches high sum in auction

A car registration plate with the number 28 was sold for Dh720,000 in a special auction by Dubai Police yesterday.

It was the most expensive item to go under the hammer when police opened their doors to 78 motorists clamouring for the ultimate status symbol on Dubai's roads besides their vehicles of course.

The six-hour auction the 20th held by Dubai Police began at 8am and by the end of it more than Dh14 million had been raised from the sale of the 58 plates.

The auction, at Dubai Officers' Club, also included plates introduced this year that feature letters in addition to numbers.

Of these, E 8888 was sold for Dh330,000 while the plate D 7777 was sold for Dh560,000. Anyone looking for a bargain would have had to shell out at least Dh50,000.

However, the event did not raise as much as the previous one, which brought in more than Dh18 million.

"The last auction saw higher returns. The most expensive number sold then was number 12 which we sold for more than Dh1,200,000," said Ebrahim Abdul Khalak, from the finance department of Dubai Traffic Police.

The most costly three-digit plate, 121, was sold for Dh 250,000 while four digit plates such as 4444 reached Dh560,000.

The system of auctioning number plates began in 2002 to allow the public to own special plates.

When the system was launched, Brigadier Mohammad Saif Al Zafein, director of Dubai Traffic Police, told Gulf News that people buy the exclusive plates because they feel if they have a nice car, it should also have a nice number.