The UK Government has made over £35million during the past five years in fines from late renewals
An MoT reminder service has been requested following news that the UK Government has made over £35million during the past five years in fines.
New research has found that motorists who’ve forgotten to renew their MoT in time have collectively been fined over £35million during the past five years.
The 45 police forces throughout the UK received a Freedom of Information request which discovered that since 2012, motorists have received 424,316 penalties as a result of driving without a valid MoT certificate.
The UK Government has made over £35million during the past five years in fines from late MoT renewals © Copyright Jaggery and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
If caught with an out-of-date MoT, the fixed penalty notice could now set you back £100, following an increase in 2013 from £60. If however the case goes to court, the fine could jump up to a whopping £1,000.
Only 36 police forces responded to the request, which showed each region earned around £7.5million on average per year just in MoT fines.
The police receive data regarding MoTs from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), whilst the police use ANPR cameras to find and stop drivers with an out-of-date MoT.
The region handing out the most penalties to motorists was West Yorkshire Police, who’ve issued more than 121,000 since 2012.
Second was the Metropolitan Police in London, who’ve handed out more than 64,000 penalty notices.
In a recent poll, a third of motorists taking part admitted to forgetting to renew their MoT in time, whilst 12% confessed to leaving it for more than a month before taking their vehicle for it’s MoT.
All money earned through fines is issued to the HM Treasury’s consolidated fund, which the Treasury label the “Government’s bank account”.
A number of garages do provide customers with an automatic reminder for their MoT renewal but at the moment there’s no actual reminder service in place, however the DVSA have recently confirmed work is underway to provide such a service which will require motorists to sign up.
“We are currently testing an MoT reminder service where vehicle owners can sign up to receive a reminder E-mail at four weeks and two weeks before their MoT is due,” said a DVSA spokesman.
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