Tax cheats target for police (From Gazette Series)

Tax cheats target for police

POLICE swooped on six cars in two hours on Friday morning as part of a crackdown on unlicensed vehicles.

Operation Swoop, which was the third operation of its kind in the Dursley inspector neighbourhood area, targeted vehicles parked on the public highway without a valid tax disc.

PC George Sharpe, the officer in charge of the operation, said: "Thanks to information given to us by members of the public, we have been able to target specific vehicles that we know are untaxed and on the public highway."

Police used reports from the public to identify the vehicles and then used the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority national database to verify the claims.

Officers from the DVLA and Stroud District Council joined the police on Friday to clamp the vehicles that they had identified.

Added PC Sharpe: "There is usually a lot more to an untaxed vehicle than meets the eye. As it isn't taxed, it doesn't have any valid insurance and it may not have a valid MoT certificate, making it especially dangerous."

PC Sharpe and the other agency officers first visited Berkeley, where they clamped a car in Stock Lane.

The car's tax disc had expired last August so, as it was parked on the road, a clamp was fitted to one of the wheels.

PC Sharpe said: "Although this car obviously hasn't been driven anywhere for some length of time, it is on the road without a valid tax disc and has therefore been clamped.

"The owner now faces a fine of at least £200 if they want the clamp to be removed. If they try to remove it themselves then they will be committing a criminal offence."

The fee to release the vehicle within 24 hours is £80 plus £120 surety for a valid tax disc, rising to £160 plus £120 thereafter.

If it becomes necessary to tow the vehicle away it is impounded at a further cost of £15 per day, until it is eventually crushed.

People who choose not to pay and have their car crushed will still be fined however, as they will be charged with having a vehicle on the road without valid insurance.

The operation resulted in clamps being put on two cars in Sharpness and three in Cam, as well as the one in Berkeley.

Said PC Sharpe: "The operation was definitely a success. We are looking to repeat it in Dursley and Wotton in the near future, possibly with an early morning swoop to catch people before they try to go to work in their untaxed vehicles."