Car tax disc abolition ‘will cause chaos’

Electronic system could hit victims of car cloning, say London town halls

Changes: a car tax disc (Picture: PA)

8 September 2014

The abolition of vehicle tax discs at the end of the month could cause chaos for some motorists, town halls in London warned today.

They said the DVLA had “not thought through” the scheme and had not publicised it enough.

From October 1, the tax disc will be scrapped as a means of paying vehicle excise duty, which raises £6 billion a year for the Exchequer.

Instead, drivers will be entered into an electronic database and those who have not paid will be captured by CCTV using automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). The Government says the new scheme will save millions of pounds in administration costs.

But London Councils said it could cause problems for motorists whose cars have been cloned — potentially leaving them facing penalty charge notices they are not liable for.

Nick Lester, corporate director of services at London Councils, said: “The DVLA has simply not thought this through. There is an issue about whether the car genuinely was where the enforcement officer said it was, and this is a problem with cloned cars and ringers. If somebody gets a ticket and they insist the car has been cloned, the serial number on the tax disc removes all doubt. If the vehicle has been cloned it’s got a different tax disc number. It’s a very useful check. It’s going to be much harder to prove if the vehicle was there or not.”

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, added: “There is no excuse for a lack of awareness over what the Government itself regards as such a major change. Surely an appropriate amount of the £6 billion could be spent on keeping the nation’s 36 million drivers informed?”

The DVLA said it advised victims of vehicle cloning to contact the police in the first instance, and to deal direct with the parking authority. It pointed out that cloners can copy tax discs.

A spokesman for the DVLA said it was “working hard” to inform motorists, with details on website Gov.uk and messages on tax reminder envelopes.

Car tax disc abolition ‘will cause chaos’

Read More