Taxing Question..

[rickquattro]

I keep hearing on the radio of the fact that the Government are keen to offer £80 fines to untaxed car owners. Apparently the only place that they need to look is on their computer....

Does anyone know of a fine that has been issued or is this a case of scare tactics, hoping folk will tax or SORN their cars......

I have an untaxed vehicle which has been like this for 5 years.......

 

[AndyMac]

No it's a reality, but in order to get done you have to get zapped by one of the many ANPR (auto number plate recognition) camera's. These are either mobile units mounted on motorway bridges (small device over each lane on both carriageways), incar mounted in traffic cars, or via congestion charging system i.e. in London.
The system takes a photo of the car, OCR's it, and then verifies it against the central database to check tax, insurance, MOT, stolen etc.
It does work as I got pulled on a mobile system when I bought my new Avant, which hadn't been taxed yet.
For once the authorities are using technology in the right way, but the joke is that with only an £80 fine it's hardly a deterrent. the fine should be £80 if you're just out by a few days, but much more if you're a persistent offender.
The assumption is that if it's untaxed then it's unlikely to be MOT'd, so not insured, so get the f*ck off the road you ********!
Also if the car is legitimately off the road, you have to register the fact with the DVLA, you can't just not tax it.

 

[rickquattro]

So if I read your mail right, just going through the computer and issuing fines doesnt seem to be happening but zapping untaxed cars on the road is...

That explains the little camera pods on some police cars.

As you said, technology used in the right way for a change....

 

[imported_jimbogrey]

I got a standard letter saying that as I had failed to renew my Tax(due to being on hoiliday for a month i had to pay £80. so I paid up immediately have now waited 5 months before buying a new one so as to get my moneys worth. just have to make sure to avaoid the recognition cameras. which for information are regularly parked outside Sandown Park Race course.

 

[Khufu]

if your car hasnt been taxed for a cetain amount of years it wont be on the system, possibly assumed it has been scrapped. This happened to my motorbike that was in bits in a box for about 5 years. We never got a sorn warning for it but it has been registered now as sorn so it will be on the system. Hope to have it on the road shortly anyhow.

 

[madvw]

i guess thats why they invalidated all the old V5 certificates, and forced us to renew them for the multi-colour V5c forms...

 

[dickys3]

I know of quite a few people who have had this fine, and the cars had never been on the road to be picked up by the cameras.

My bro in-law bought a car, registered it and then left it in his back garden ready to do up. A couple of months down the line he had a fine!

As said above, perhaps because the car hasn't been registered for a number of years its not on the database?

 

[AndyMac]

Yes I think they are only tracking cars where the tax has run out recently and then not been renewed. You just need to tell them that the car is off the road.

 

[AndyMac]

although if they can just use their database to fine thousands of untaxed motors why are they wasting our money with the ANPR cameras?