Dubai-based British expat teacher James Didcott is hoping he will strike gold with the sale of a numberplate on eBay.

Didcott bought the plate AB11 DAB from the licensing authority in Swansea after hearing that similar plates had sold for up to Dh1.5million (£260,000) in the oil-rich territories.

Having persuaded his dad to buy the plate for him for £405, Didcott has now listed it on eBay. He told Emirati national news programme 7Days: "I found AB11 DAB for sale and phoned my dad in the UK and got him to buy it for me."

Didcott, who has lived in the Emirates all his life, added that his family had a long history of putting personalised numberplates on their cars – but he had little idea that there was such fierce competition for them among Emirati residents.

"I had G13 LOT (as in GB LOTUS) on my Lotus Elise, which looked pretty good," he said.

"The 7Days article made me realise how the interest in car plates had shot up.”

A nearly-identical plate, AB11 DHB, has already been the subject of a fierce bidding war at a private auction, while Didcott has a good chance of getting a high price for his plate.

7Days reported that one of the people interested in bidding for it was Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, the mega-rich owner of Manchester City FC. 



Article Added: 07/02/2012 10:07:00