CHELSEA’S Roman Abramovich has the number plate VIP 1 on one of his limos, Hackney-born TV-sleb Lord Sugar flashes AMS 1 (his initials) on his Rolls-Royce (what else?) and Bradford’s Afzal Khan (auto entrepreneur) sports F1 (cost, £440,000) on a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

But none of them has the hipster cred of Adem Camel’s Nissan 350Z: E8 DEM.

The Hackney garage owner told Loving Dalston the plate came with the car, from the registration people at the DVLA, and meant nothing to him. He now knows that in London Jamaican dialect it means “We are Dalston” or even simply “Hackney crew”.

Of course there are other variations of meaning — creole is open to interpretation — but few East London registrations could be more apt.

The personable young man says he has no wish to sell, claiming ignorance that plates can sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

After an initial willingness to talk to Loving Dalston and be photographed with the car, he seemed, however, to change his story, saying E8 DEM was a gift.

A gift, you say? Camel suddenly developed media-phobia and became camera-shy.

All very Dalston, dem.

David Altheer 011015

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