Noticed the other night that one of the numberplate bulbs in my vrs wasn't working so at lunch I decided to remove the dead bulb to replace it.

After removing the plastic cover I noticed that the bulb was a lot more recessed than I was expecting and then made a huge error by trying to pull it out anyway. This resulted in the bulb disappearing into the boot housing!

Any ideas how to get at it now? Can access be gained by removing the trim on the inside of the tailgate? Please help!

Common problem. You'll have to take out the relevant bit of lining to dig around - I'm not sure about the saloon but on the estate, it's the plastic on the inside of the boot lid and is a two-man job unless you've got very long arms (and three of them).

Yeah you can pop off the hatch trim, and put it all back together properly. The bulb holders have a tendancy to push through into the boot, when you push a new bulb in.

Getting the trim on and off just requires some patience and sturdy fingers! If you pop off the clips on the bottom edge first you will be able to see into the panel. The top clips need to be unclipped by sliding the panel upwards, and parallel to the window. It's a bit fiddly and annoying, but I'm sure you'll figure it out once you start!

Try a search on boot/hatch/tailgate trim removal and I'm sure you'll find more info.