VIN number on older bikes

Howdy all.
I’m having problems officially importing my 1994 Targa from the UK into Ireland. The export document which the DVLA sent me has 2 letters and 5 numbers in the box that refers to VIN. ie LT 12345.
Now the Irish import guy I was talking to was insisting there should be a 17 digit VIN, and nothing else will do. I’ve since found out that guzzi only started using 17 digits sometime in the mid 90’s. Can someone check there logbook and see if this is true?
Secondly the LT 12345 number is actually stamped on the downtube of the bike, but then there is an asterisk, and then 7 numbers. There’s no reference to these numbers on the export document, and when I phoned the DVLA, they said they had no information on them either. So what are they?
Can anyone shed some light?

my 1978 850T3 chassis has just 5 numbers my 1986 V65 has 2 letters and 5 numbers on its chassis , ’
but my 1997 Cali Ev has a total of 17 chassis letters and numbers
I therefor presume your bike was one of the last models to have just a total of 7 digits,

so far so good but the the asterisk, and then 7 numbers bits could be part of the vin number, the asterisk would be counted as part of the letters and numbers count, really need a Targa owner to double check this issue.

The ‘asterisk’ is most likely a 5-pointed star,
mine has it and so I assume that they all do. Ignore it, you just want the 2 letters before it and the 5 digits after, e.g. AB12345, that should be the VIN and what’s on the V5C as same.

I’ll try and remember to check at work tomorrow. 17 digit VIN is certainly mandatory now, but I’m not sure when it became so. My 1972 bike has the 2 letters and 5 numbers separated by a star, so that must have been the Guzzi system before the change. I think there is plenty of information out there to decode frame numbers and as far as I know the club still offers a machine dating service if it helps.

Google searches say 1981

Also found this …

http://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=f7191cb067705183ccc72ec99d229983&topic=47048.msg705508#msg705508

All sorted!
Thanks to everyone for the help and advice.
I went to another office, and another guy, and he seemed to just accept the 2 letter, 5 number theory.
Still don’t know what the numbers after the star are for, but I don’t care anymore.
Now if only I could get the right cylinder to stop backfiring…