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Wearside and East Durham Police carry out 3 year crackdown on road tax evasion
More than £2m in fines has been raised following a three-year crackdown on road tax evaders in Wearside and East Durham.
The Freedom of Information Act has allowed access to precise information regarding the number of road users caught without road tax. Figures show that 24,454 separate tickets have been issued since 2004, with each recipient having to pay an £80 fine.
Despite this huge number, some motoring organisations believe that there are still thousands of vehicles going undetected.
Edmund King, executive director of the RAC, commented: "I believe that all over the country the DVLA were losing out on £100 million a year so in terms of that, £2 million is possibly what one would expect.
"But I think, looking at the figures, they still show there's still quite a problem out there."
The police revealed that those who do not buy road tax for their car are often found to have committed other offences, both motoring and not.
Some of these multiple offenders simply cannot afford to pay for their motor insurance quote, MoT or tax but carry on using their car instead of selling it. Others are found to be involved in criminal gangs which use shared illegal vehicles so they cannot be traced after committing crimes like burglary and robbery.
However, it looks like the situation is beginning to turn the corner due to the removal of the two week grace period and improved techniques being used to identify offenders, such as electronic number plate recognition.
Corrine Aldous of duck2water Car Insurance Services, a company specialising in cheap motor insurance quotes, said: "The measures being implemented to reduce the number of motoring offences such as road tax evasion seem to be growing in effectiveness, which is excellent news for the car insurance industry.
"If they are successful in cutting the number of untaxed and uninsured cars on the road, it will mean significantly cheaper car insurance quotes for everyone else."
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