DVLA gets tough on tax dodgers (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting WGS NEWS to 80360, or email
us
DVLA targets road tax dodgers around Malmesbury
3:00pm Friday 28th September 2012 in News By Liz Day
THE DVLA has been targeting road tax dodgers around Malmesbury this week.
A Bristol enforcement team found 48 vehicles without a valid tax disc during a one-week operation conducted across Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.
Alison Muirhead, a spokesman for the DVLA, said: "A wheel clamping unit has been enforcing untaxed vehicles in the Wiltshire and Gloucestershire area as part of their usual deployment plans."
Untaxed vehicles were clamped, a tactic that she said proved effective.
Statistics from the Department for Transport show 0.7 percent of traffic on British roads was driving without a valid tax disc in 2011, which equates to 249,000 vehicles. This was down from 307,000 vehicles in 2010.
It is estimated that road tax evasion cost £40m in lost revenue in Britain last year. The highest rate of evasion was seen among motorcyclists, which accounted for 2.1 percent of the total. If a vehicle is untaxed, the driver will receive an automatic penalty of £80 and the vehicle may be clamped and removed. If the driver fails to pay, the vehicle may be impounded and eventually crushed or sold.
