[UPDATE: ] a FOI request has produced this information:
Of the 22 marks withdrawn by the Agency, 18 misrepresented registration marks were withdrawn as a result of police notifications, and 1 withdrawn as the result of a notification from a DVLA enforcement officer."
The DVLA remove the registration marks from use, but seemingly almost always on police request. 15,784 warning letters have bee sent by the DVLA since the law was introduced in 1999.
The DVLA has strict guidelines on how number
plates show be displayed, fonts, spacing, badges etc (http://www.dvla.gov.uk/media/pdf/leaflets/v796.pdf), yet they continue to sell “cherished numbers” that are only worth the vast amounts they sell due to the