A COMPANY director claims West Mercia Police lost out on £90,000 by selling a historic number plate to a former chief constable – as it emerged that the sale wasn't announced until 21 days after the deal was agreed.

Jon Cherry, director of regplates.com, said he had a client who was willing to pay up to £250,000 for the 'AB 1' number plate.

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) John Campion sold the plate to former Chief Constable Paul West for a reported £160,000 in July.

Mr Campion's decision to sell the plate to fund frontline policing sparked outrage among retired officers, who claimed he was selling off a piece of 'police heritage'.

And it has emerged that he announced that the plate had been sold on Thursday, August 11, despite actually agreeing the deal on Friday, July 21.

'AB 1' was the first registration number issued to Worcestershire and was traditionally used on the staff cars of the force's Chief Constables.

Mr Cherry lambasted the PCC for selling the item 'behind closed doors' and said he offered an opening bid of around £200,000 for the plate.

"To sell it in-house for less money, when it's a public asset, to me seems wrong," he said.

"I made a formal approach to buy it on behalf of a client and was told it's not for sale.

"His [the PCC's assistant] exact words were 'it's not for sale'. He didn't say it had been sold. They wouldn't give any more information. That was about [the middle of August].

"The offer was in the region of £200,000. We would have gone to £250,000."

Mr Cherry, aged 43, said he believes public assets should be sold to the highest bidder in a transparent manner.

"Anything in the public interest should be put to the open market," he added.

"They withdrew it from Brightwells with the reason that they would do [sell] it themselves. That's what the auction house told me."

Mr Cherry said his client, who is in his 50s and based in London, was unhappy when he found out his offer had been rejected.

Former West Mercia Police Chief Constable Paul West reassured retired officers that the plate is safe with him, following the sale.

A PCC spokesman said: "We would reiterate that the plate was sold to the highest bidder. We can confirm that no correspondence and no formal offer was received by Mr Cherry prior to the sale, which was agreed on July 21.

"As is common with transactions of this size and nature, a series of financial checks were required before the deal was completed and announced."