Number Plate Stories

Half Million Pound Plate Squabble!

Two multi-millionaires fighting their way through the courts over a car registration were recently told that they had wasted both the huge amounts of money and the considerable time they have invested in the argument.

Allen Lloyd and Stefan Svenby have been in dispute for four years over the right to display the number plate WTM 446 and the chassis number BHL 126 on their 1959 Lister Jaguars. The two men left court at the end of February after a judge told them it was not his business to settle such quarrels.

Mr Lloyd, whose fortune was generated by the Lloyds Pharmacy chain, sued Mr Svenby, as a result of conflicting desires by each man to lay claim to the original car that bore the disputed ID marks. That particular vehicle had not only raced in the 1963 Le Mans 24-hour race, but was also the star of the classic British racing film, The Green Helmet.

The court endured a week of claim and counter-claim about the various states of disrepair into which two chassis and two complete sets of parts had fallen before being restored to their current impressive conditions. However, Mr Justice Stanley Burnton refused to rule that either man's car had a better claim to the chassis number, and consequently the registration number, than the other.

Moreover, the judge expressed his "wonderment" that the two men had pursued the quarrel so far and spent so much money. He said there was no dispute regarding ownership, nor any confusion as to which car was which.

There been no suggestion of dishonest or improper behaviour by either man. The judge said: "At the beginning of the trial I expressed surprise that two seemingly intelligent and honest men would seek to resolve this dispute by extensive litigation, which in the event occupied seven days of court time, rather than by compromise.

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