Minister pledges major clampdown on road tax evasion

The Department of the Environment’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Northern Ireland (DVLNI) and the RUC are to join forces in a major clampdown on road tax dodgers.

Three times as many people avoid paying motor tax in Northern Ireland compared to the UK. Around one in ten people evade motor tax and the loss to the treasury is estimated to be £12 million, which is enough to renovate two schools, or re-stock new drugs for specialist patient care.

Launching the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) campaign, Minister of the Environment

Sam Foster said: “We are out to deter the evader with the threat of inconvenience, prosecution and large fines. We will not be penalising those whose licence discs have fallen off the windscreen or are a few days late renewing them. Before vehicles are clamped, details on the vehicle register will be checked with DVLNI.”

He said that law abiding motorists had nothing to fear, but that honest motorists were fed up with “hard core evaders” who continually evaded paying their road tax.

Chief Executive of DVLNI Brendan Magee endorsing the Minister’s comments said: “Since the launch of the wheelclamping scheme in Northern Ireland in January 1998, 2,000 motorists have been wheelclamped for not having a valid vehicle excise licence. In addition, 40,000 motorists have relicensed their vehicles voluntarily as a direct result of the wheelclamping scheme bringing in £4.6m in additional revenue.”

However, he said that over 400 motorists in Northern Ireland who had failed to retrieve their unlicensed vehicles from vehicles pounds, had had them crushed. Current legislation allows the DVLNI to dispose of unclaimed vehicles after five weeks.

In a combined effort to recover the millions of pounds lost every year through VED evasion, the police and the wheelclamping teams will be intensifying their enforcement activities.

The police will also be on the look out for motorists committing other road safety and motoring offences. (SP)