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So, what's the wheel deal, Noel?

Two cars, the same French plates and a very muddled explanation

By DENNIS RICE and IAN SPARKS in Nice - More by this author »

As the host of Channel 4’s Deal Or No Deal he creates dilemmas for contestants hoping to win a fortune.

But it was the turn of Noel Edmonds to appear indecisive as he struggled to answer a tricky question: why was he using two different cars with the same number plate on the same day?

On Friday, the 58-year-old was pictured leaving the studios in Bristol where Deal Or No Deal is filmed in a smart £50,000 Range Rover Sport.

The vehicle, bearing the French number plate 466 BMQ 06, was driven out by Mr Edmonds himself.


A LOT ON HIS PLATE: Noel's Range Rover Sport in Bristol, top, and his Discovery in France on the same day


But just hours later he was spotted 1,000 miles away in Nice airport, jumping into a £40,000 Land Rover Discovery with an identical number plate, en route to his £3million Cote D’Azur villa.

The problem for Mr Edmonds is that under both British and French laws it is illegal to run two cars on the same number plate.

Under the French Code De La Route (Road Licence Law) 1984 each car must have a unique registration plate.

French traffic police spokesman Jean Morrell said: ‘There is absolutely no possibility of two vehicles sharing the same registration number. It would make a nonsense of the system.’

And a spokesman for Britain’s Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) said it was an offence under the Motor Vehicles (International Circulation) Order 1991 for a number plate in France to be cloned and used in the UK.

He said: ‘If there is a suspicion that a vehicle with foreign plates has been cloned, we can act upon that information and, if it is proven, we can alert the police.’

A motor insurance expert said: ‘Any third party injured in an accident involving the vehicle would still receive a pay-out. But if it was proved that the plates were cloned that would be a matter for the police and the insurance policy would be invalidated.’

When confronted, Mr Edmonds confirmed he owned both vehicles but struggled to explain the problem away.

In the end the star plumped for blaming a mystery man who looks after his fleet of ten cars.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday at his French villa, Mr Edmonds at first insisted that the story was ‘untrue’, before being presented with evidence.

He then tried to clarify the situation, saying: ‘There was a cock-up. The person in charge of registering the vehicles did not specify the correct numbers for the cars.

‘The guy who runs the vehicle for me got it wrong. But it has now been resolved. The car in France was given the wrong plates.’

Asked if he was sure, Mr Edmonds added: ‘I really don’t know.’

Later, in a statement issued through his agent, he said: ‘I did not knowingly break any law. I have made an administrative cock-up and I thank The Mail on Sunday for pointing it out to me. I am already rectifying everything and I can assure you heads in my office are going to roll over this.’

It is thought the TV presenter purchased the Land Rover Discovery two years ago, at around the same time as he bought his villa in Magagnosc in the South of France.

His Range Rover Sport is understood to have been bought in the UK last year.

Mr Edmonds reportedly earns £3million a year for hosting Deal Or No Deal.

Sure or not sure...how Edmonds struggled to respond

REPORTER: Sorry to bother you with this, Noel, but we have a story about how you have two cars with the same number plate – one in France and one in England.

NOEL: That is simply not true.

REPORTER: Well, we have taken pictures of both cars in both countries at the same time and it is the same number plate.

NOEL: There was a cock-up.

REPORTER: A cock-up?

NOEL: Yes. The person in charge of registering the vehicles did not specify the correct numbers...The guy who runs the vehicles for me got it wrong. But it has now been resolved.

REPORTER: I don’t think it has, Noel.

NOEL: No. It has.

REPORTER: Are you sure? Because we took pictures of both cars yesterday. Both are using the same number plate.

NOEL: Yes. I am sure.

REPORTER: Do you have a lot of cars?

NOEL: Altogether I think it must be ten.

REPORTER: I see. So this guy manages your fleet, registering the cars and making sure they are up to date with tax and things because you are a very busy man?

NOEL: Yes.

REPORTER: Could you tell me his name?

NOEL: Not without checking with him first.

REPORTER: OK, if you could do that.

NOEL: I was asked about this six months ago. The car in France was given the wrong plates.

REPORTER: So was this resolved six months ago?

NOEL: I’m not sure.

REPORTER: This is very complicated, Noel. I want to get this right. What you are saying is that you had the car in England with one set of plates and your fleet manager accidentally specified that this number went on the car in France.

NOEL: No. The other way around.

REPORTER: Are you sure?

NOEL: I really don’t know. I’d have to check with the guy.

REPORTER: And the car in England is a Range Rover Sport and the car in France is a Range Rover Discovery?

NOEL: Yes, that’s right.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Off to the Gunge tank with him!!

Exile him to Crinkly Bottom - that'l learn him!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

make him crush one

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Would a reasonable person notice that their English car had a French plate on it? I think so. Crush it!

Hmm. Anti-motorist policy devices are starting to look normal, even here. That's very scary.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

It was tounge in cheek. However, the policy for some one living in a back street of Manchester or North Wales should also apply to Crinkley Bottom.

I have four cars , four diferent number plates and a tax disk and insurance for each of them that are venturing on to the road.

Noel has a bit more money than me and I expect him to do the same. If he has deliberatly evaded duty I feel I have the right to take the micky out of him.

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Understood. Fair enough.

However, surely the real story is the one about why he did it (or allowed it to happen).

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Why a person might do such a thing: evade tax, evade speed and congestion charging. evading car purchase taxes.

The other possibility is that one or other might have been reported stolen In the motor trade I believe its called ringing. My sister lost a £11k land rover three months ago. The insurance paid out £17k due to a gap policy. It has not turned up. Maybe customs and police need to make more identity checks on high value cars passing through uk ports.


How do you forget that you exported a British car To France, made up an extra set of plates, bought another car the same and then booked it a ferry crossing to the uk, where the car was built and then took a set of plates off a car and put the spare set on one of the cars?

The amount of tax being evaded might not just be £215
£5957 VAT evasion
new car registration tax evasion
and how many insurance policies are there for these two cars?

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

The fun I used to have over the simple question of "Can you tell me the registration of this car, Sir?" Always struck me a bit odd when some stuggled - so I used to arrest them on suspicion of a TWOC!


Legal requirements are set out clearly in the Vehicles (Registration and Licencing) Regulations Act 1994 and further criteria added 2002) The rules giving the form of registration plates are defined in the Road Vehicles (Display of Registration) Marks 2001. So even if you have a personalised plate and manipulate it in any way in breach of the regs - (a common example is the attempt to spell a first name by using a bolt or screw in a rather naff way ) They have to be clear cos if the car's stolen or involved in some crime (not necessarily speeding ) - then we rely on witnesses to give us as much detail of the reg plate as possible. If Noel's car had been stolen - we would certainly have some problems trying to find it as they have the same registration number apparently - I admit to my nose starting to "itch and want to niff around a bit more on that one "


Have not much sympathy.

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All I could think of was 'driving licence preservation'. I guess I'm not very criminally minded...

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Im absolutely hopeless at maths, no really i am, i admit it, yet for some reason im very quick on number plates, or rather the recognition and recall of them along with large number/letter strings, phonenumbers that sort of thing.... guess im just weird.
Anyway i got pulled over one day for a routine vehicle check, had all the usual questions and then the trafpol ( when there was such a thing) asked me the "Do you know the numberplate?" question.
You should have seen his face when i gave him the, numberplate, my full driver number and the vin all from memory. Made his day i think, i know it got a smile out of him.

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"Safety" Scamera Partnerships;
Profitting from death and misery since 1993.

Believe nothing- Question everything.

After a little more though...
May be he is right...
to buy a car that cost 30k he would have to pay VAT at 17.5%
new car tax at 5% (?)
road fund liscence £215
so that is £37,237

that is out of his money after 40% tax
so to buy the car he would have to earn £62062.50 pre tax
over double the market price.

Then someone expects fuel duty congestion charging and speeding fines.

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

I don't have too much sympathy, as he always has the option of driving a £700 car, as I do, if he doesn't like it.

not to mention the poor darling earns that (and presumably a whole lot more elsewhere) in a week...

Probably a genuinine cock-up, same thing happened to me when I bought a new car in Cyprus. The rep from the dealer had so many to register on one day he cocked up and gave two of us the same plate. My wife only noticed when she followed the 'clone' car (identical make, model and colour) up to the base one day.

I'm no great fan of Noel Edmonds but this is much more likely to be a cock-up than a conspiracy.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Or maybe a Photoshop* job or deliberate plate switch as someone is out to make a story or get him in trouble as a prank. After all, there are a few people after him who have been 'gotcha'd.

(Am I the only person thinking that the alignment of the letters on the front plate on that Range Rover looks a little suspect?!*)

I'm with Paul - License preservation.

If he bought the car(s) in France, they would be cheaper, even allowing for delivery to Britain.
I dont think he would need to fiddle his insurance - it's cheaper in France anyway.
I think he has just assumed the two vehicles were close enough in description to pass muster on the plate, while the French would take the blame in Britain if the details were checked and found not to match exactly.

If he bought the Discovery TWO years ago, (in France) there is no way this could be an French administrative cock up!

He would have to take the British bought car to France, and have it tested for road worthiness, before the French authorities issued a new registration - which are REGIONAL. Change departments, and you change your registration!
The road worthiness certificate applies to ALL vehicles imported into France, and costs up to £600. It's a way of "taxing" a car, without it being called a tax.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Inclined to agree with you Ern.

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