North-West tax blitz
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by Ian Wylie • Road tax dodgers in the North-West could face fines of up to £25,000 if caught in a clampdown launched jointly by the Vehicle Inspectorate and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
From this month, VI testing stations in the North-West will check the tax disc of every truck submitted for its annual LGV test. If the vehicle is not displaying a valid disc, registration details will be passed to the DVLA.
It is not an offence to take an unlicensed vehicle to and from a test, provided the test has been prebooked but if the DVLA does not receive a licence application within the following week, the HGV operator will be asked for an explanation.
The DVLA believes there are about 1,400 unlicensed I.GVs on the roads in Cheshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester costing the taxpayer more than £2.4m in lost revenue.
If the North-west pilot is successful, the scheme could be rolled out across the country. There are thought to be around 13,000 unlicensed LGVs nationally. Last year 4,000 LGV tax dodgers were caught and made to pay more than .E.?..m in fines and penalties.
The DVLA has been criticised by a Lincoln operator for not meeting its own targets on tax refunds.
Under its Customer Charter, the agency pledges to make refund repayments within three weeks or six weeks if the amount is more than £150. But Bernard Carter, a partner of WR Carter & Sons had to wait eight weeks for a tax refund of £910. "They don't give us eight weeks to pay our tax disc, do they?" he says.
The DVLA is unable to provide figures on how well it is meeting its refund target, but says Carter is entitled to apply for compensation.