BREAKING NEWS – Has 1 NHS Plate sold for £150,000?

The answer to the above questions is yes… and no! The DVLA have not disclosed this twist in the tale of the sale of 1 NHS but we have the information. 1 NHS sold at a DVLA auction back in July. Of course due to Covid-19 all DVLA auctions are currently being held solely online, so the purchaser of the plate was not at the auction in person.  The plate sold at the July auction for a massive £150,000. This was a great outcome that was widely publicised, particularly with the NHS being in the spotlight so much during the Covid lockdown.

 However, the bid was later retracted and the sale terminated. The purchaser was able to do this due to their rights under the Consumer Contracts Regulations. These regulations were brought in in 2014 to replace the Distance Selling Regulations, updated to take into account the increasing amount of products now being purchased online. The regulations state that you have the right to cancel an order from the moment you place your order, up to 14 days after you receive the product. The retailer is then legally obliged to give you a refund within 14 days of cancellation.

So what has happened to 1 NHS?

Well it certainly hasn’t been bought, the purchaser has changed their mind. Why, we’ll perhaps never know. Perhaps they bought it on impulse and regretted it. Perhaps their significant other told them they weren’t allowed to blow that much cash on a private plate. Who knows, but it does mean one thing, 1 NHS is still up for grabs. Tom Prosser from the DVLA has stated that the plate will be available in a future DVLA auction but was unable to give a specific date, so if it’s a plate you’d like to purchase, look out for that one, and remember, you have 14 days to change your mind! But we wouldn’t recommend that, the DVLA might not be too happy with you!