Slater Jota on Iconic Bike Auctions

My slater letter references both frame & engine number whereas that letter just references the engine number. It surely must be a replacement frame looking at the poor quality stamping on the headstock and the LAV 1200 ref
 
I think I have seen this bike for sale elsewhere. Is this a bike Helicopter Jim owned? Looks OK to me; a bit of fettle should sort it out. It is 44 years old and obviously not a 'trailer queen'.
So what if it has a different frame? Maybe the original got bent, and the owner sourced a good straight one; an 82 1200 frame is the same as an 82 1000 frame (or close enough).
 
Ok, this bike was run on an auction late last year, and then was in their “Buy it Now” section for 5-6 months.

I had a closer look at this bike again, after looking at recent responses. That frame is not right, I mean the identifying numbers on the headstock. Yeah, the Mk2 180’s and the late Mirage have the same frame, but, clearly this fellow got a Slater sourced motorcycle, but it’s not correct numbers match. A shame the auction does not recognize this, don’t think they’ve been informed by this “inconsistency “.
 
Late replacement frames usually had a pre stamped 1200 on the headstock I was told. The registration number quoted on the Slaters letter doesn't tie up with the UK Government DVLA database which says that number was allocated to a blue Ducati. It could just be a typo from back in the day because there is a large block of AWL ***Y numbers allocated to Ducatis, Guzzis and Kawasakis. I thought that 3 Cross and not Slaters were the UK importers in 1982 anyway? Still looks a nice bike to me though.
 
78jotadave said:
It is the same ad, same bike. I was curious as to whether this was one of Helicopter Jim's bikes.
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I touched bases with Jim regularly, and, I don’t think this bike was part of his inventory.

I know that there is a certain ‘provenance’ associated with a Laverda being a ‘Slater Laverda’. I’m pretty sure that by the time they were making Jotas at the factory, like this one, Slaters was at that point a dealer of new and used Laverdas. This letter for sure shows the origin of this bike where he bought it, but perhaps doesn’t give the true provenance of a Mk1 Slater Jota.
 
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