I think if you were the registered keeper at the time that the MOT expired you can transfer it or put it on retention.Don't think that's still the case.
My neighbour transferred a private plate from a scrap of a Jeep he'd kept rusting in his drive to a new car.
Unless he got a Mickey mouse mot for the Jeep, there's no way it would even make it to the MOT garage.
I'll ask him.

