Newport 'jihad' registration plate withdrawn by DVLA

Offensive registration plates are banned by the DVLA

A registration plate has been pulled by the DVLA as it looked like it spelled the word jihad.

A Ford Fiesta with the plate JH11 HAD was spotted driving in Newport and reported to authorities.

The DVLA said it "slipped through the net" and it had withdrawn it, sending a replacement plate to the owner.

Jihad literally means struggle or effort in Arabic, but in recent years the most common meaning has been holy war.

The DVLA said the personalised plate was bought in October 2016 and was not picked up by the system designed to stop offensive registrations being released.

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A spokesman added: "We try to identify all combinations that may cause offence and on the rare occasion where potentially offensive numbers slip through the net, steps are taken to withdraw the number.

"As soon as we became aware of this last week we withdrew it and would have then sent a replacement plate."

Plates resembling jihad, specifically those starting with JE and ending HAD, are not available.