Cameras and clampers to target road tax dodgers

SCOTLAND’S biggest crackdown on road-tax evaders was launched yesterday, as figures showed the country had the highest proportion of unlicensed vehicles in Britain.

Extra number-plate cameras, wheel-clamping squads and roadside checks will be used to target the 117,000 untaxed vehicles on Scotland’s roads. Five per cent of vehicles north of the Border do not have a valid tax disc, compared to 3.4 per cent across the UK.

The tax dodgers cost the Treasury 12.5 million a year, and hamper police efforts to trace criminals - 70 per cent of the occupants of untaxed vehicles have been found to have criminal records.

The government’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which is spearheading the campaign, said the higher evasion rate in Scotland was because of limited enforcement work in the past.

The crackdown will coincide with an expected increase in vehicle checks by police in the run-up to the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July. The DVLA is increasing the number of its Stingray camera vans from two to eight. Their automatic number plate recognition equipment, which is also installed in some police vehicles, is used to photograph plates to instantly tell if vehicles are untaxed.

Wheel-clamping patrols, which currently operate only in Edinburgh and Glasgow, will be increased from two to ten. A confidential hotline - 08000 325202 - is also being opened for the first time in Scotland to encourage the public to report untaxed vehicles. The DVLA said a similar phoneline in London had attracted about 15,000 calls within weeks.

The new campaign follows the tightening of the regulations on road tax. Impounded vehicles are now kept for only a week before being crushed, or resold if they are roadworthy and such a move is economically viable .

John Moore, the DVLA’s enforcement manager, said: "We have not had a campaign in Scotland for some time and the evasion rate is not going down here as fast as the rest of the UK."

He said the aim of the campaign was to at least reduce the evasion rate to the UK average.

Dumfries and Galloway is the worst part of the country for evasion - 4,800 of its 81,000 vehicles, or nearly 6 per cent, are untaxed. A total of 21,200 of the 423,000 vehicles in Lothian and Borders, or 5 per cent, are untaxed. Grampian has the lowest proportion of evasion, at 3.8 per cent, with 10,800 of its 279,000 vehicles untaxed.

Describing wheel clamping as the "nuclear deterrent" in the road-tax evasion war, Mr Moore said: "When people see a vehicle being clamped, it acts as a very positive and visible deterrent."

Drivers caught with untaxed vehicles can be fined up to 1,000 or five times the cost of their tax disc. Those whose vehicles are clamped will have to pay a 200 release fee, which increases to 280 plus 15 a day in storage costs if the vehicle is not claimed within 24 hours.

Chief Inspector Kenny Buchanan, of Lothian and Borders Police, said:

"If you are not getting your car taxed, you are not a responsible road user and that could potentially result in serious consequences for others using the roads."