Sharp rise in road tax dodgers over the past three years

Since the end of the paper tax disc more drivers have been clamped year on year

 
The paper tax disc was done away with back in October 2014 and since then, the number of motorists having their vehicle clamped for failing to ensure it was taxed has nearly doubled in just three years.
According to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), last year over 118,000 drivers had their vehicle clamped because they hadn’t paid the Vehicle Excise Duty, jumping from 84,660 in 2015 and almost double the figure in 2014 which stood at 60,000.
Top selling cars such as the Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra were found to be the ones most clamped or impounded by the authorities – 5,000 drivers from both the Ford and Vauxhall models were caught breaking the law.

 
When a vehicle is clamped, the driver has to pay £100 to have it released on the day of the offence but this doubles to £200 afterwards.
The DVLA abolished the physical tax disc back in October 2014 in an effort to save on paper and since then drivers can go online to fully tax their vehicle.
Despite the numbers almost doubling for untaxed vehicles, the DVLA insist that only a sparse number of drivers forget or don’t bother to tax their vehicle.
“Our enforcement teams are out and about on the roads around the UK all year. Their vans are equipped with number plate recognition cameras, so any vehicle that isn’t taxed is at risk of being clamped or impounded,” said the DVLA’s national wheel clamping manager Bethan Beasley.
 
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