Unpaid fines for overseas drivers total thousands

Published on Sunday 3 October 2010 15:15

Drivers of vehicles registered abroad owe Scotland's largest local authorities hundreds of thousands of pounds in unpaid parking fines, it was revealed today.

Glasgow City Council revealed the money still outstanding for penalty charge notices (PCNs) issued to foreign-registered vehicles for the last three years was 21,180 for 2007/08, 25,200 for 2008/09 and 92,340 for 2009/10 - making a total of 138,720.

Edinburgh City Council's parking operations department said 211,051 in parking tickets issued to foreign-registered vehicles were written off in 2009-10 after drivers could not be traced and tickets were not paid.

During the same period, 47,916.50 in parking tickets issued to foreign-registered vehicles were paid, the council said.

Four councils were asked how much was outstanding in unpaid parking fines on vehicles registered abroad. A spokeswoman for Glasgow City Council said: "Like any other authority, when a penalty notice is not paid, our main method of tracing the registered keeper of the vehicle is through the DVLA database.

"The DVLA does not hold information on vehicles registered overseas, so that option is not available to us in these cases.

"We will still pursue outstanding penalties through different channels wherever we can.

"If we become aware of an overseas-registered vehicle with outstanding penalty notices against it, we may impound it as a means of obtaining the details we need to recover the money.

"As such, this figure is not final - we will continue to pursue recovery wherever we can."

In 2009/10, Dundee City Council said it had 187 outstanding notices for foreign-registered vehicles of around 11,000.

A spokesman said: "The British Parking Association, of which Dundee City Council is a member, is lobbying the UK Government to facilitate inter-border co-operation on this issue."

The figure for 2008/09 was about 13,500, which is still unpaid, the council said.

A spokeswoman for Aberdeen City Council said: "We issue penalty charge notices to foreign vehicles.

"Anyone with a vehicle with a foreign registration is required to register the vehicle after one year if the vehicle remains in the UK. Because of this, any PCNs issued to foreign vehicles are progressed to full charge and an inquiry is sent to DVLA.

"If DVLA has no record of the vehicle owner, the PCN will be cancelled as any other at that stage. We do not keep separate records for foreign vehicles."

Bill Blakemore, director of the SPARKS Network, an association of public authorities that campaigns for more effective cross-border traffic enforcement, said: "Continental European governments have done much better than us, by sharing data between themselves about vehicle ownership.

"Up to now the Department for Transport and DVLA have not seen the foreign vehicle problem as a priority to fix."