Biker owes Westminster Council £45,000 in unpaid parking tickets

Off-topic
1

Story taken from BBC News

Foreign drivers owe £4.5m fines

Foreign drivers owe a London council more than £4.5m in parking fines, it has emerged, with owners of luxury “super cars” the worst culprits.

Westminster Council said parking fines on more than 80% of foreign-owned cars and motorbikes were unpaid, as it cannot trace their owners overseas.

They include a Rolls Royce Phantom owner who owes £3,000 in fines.

The council wants the legal right to access overseas driver and vehicle registration data.

The council said hundreds of motorists from across Europe, the US and Middle East were currently evading fines.

Foreign drivers who bring vehicles to the UK are required to register them with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) after they have been in the country for six months.

Whenever a parking ticket is issued, councils require driver information from the DVLA.

If that vehicle has not been registered, the council is unable to trace that information or enforce the fine as its parking laws do not apply outside the UK.

Westminster Council wants all motorists who break parking laws to face the same penalties, regardless of their citizenship or where their vehicle was registered.

Mr Danny Chalkley, from the authority, said: "A tiny minority feel as though the rules of this country do not apply to them.

“We would like to see a more rigorous system put in place to send a clear message that this blatant disregard of the law will not be tolerated.”

He added: “Each of those vehicles owes us thousands of pounds. They owe that money to the Westminster Council tax payer.”

Lamborghini Murcielago owner - 17 unpaid tickets, owes £2,000
Ferrari Scaglietti - 19 tickets, £2,000
Rolls Royce Phantom (above) - 23 tickets, £3,000
Hummer - 35 tickets, £4,000
Unspecified motorcycle - 400 tickets, £45,000

2

hmm found a solution to Westministers Motorcycle Parking charging…

bring a bike from Greece! :w00t:

3

and then park in any space you want to :smiley:

4

Why dont they just impound the vehicles until they cough up rather than just keep issuing tickets which the owner isnt going to pay?

5

you assume that they have brains to think of that! :wink:

6

I don’t think the law allows for that at the moment.

I know the DVLA are trying to get it changed, because of people bringing cars over and not registering them here after 6 months.

7

what the DVLA forget to mention is the number of British cras that do the same thing in France and Germany

8

In France they can tow the car away though, I know it’s happend to me in Paris once or twice :Whistling:, and some EU countries can remove your number plates so you have to go toi the police and pay the fine

9

yep thats what they do in Greece… its why policemen carry screwdrivers instead of sticks :smiley:

10

I’m sure I saw something on telly recently in that foreign cars that haven’t been registered after 6 months are being towed away. I think it was on BBC brekky either yesterday or the day before.

11

Anyone seen Arnie lately?!? :wink: :smiley:

12

but couldnt they just clamp them then ?

13

For speeding tickets in France and Switzerland, they will be sent to the UK for payment.

14

That’s the stupidity.

If you commit a driving offense in any EU country you can be prosecuted in your country of registration but apparently because of data protection parking offenses are different… go figure

15

Why do other countries seem to have things better worked out than the UK?

I have a work colleague who acts as a DVLA agent and enforcement officer. With the local police they do periodic blitz raids on areas checking for untaxed, uninsured, no MoT vehicles.

They can only act against vehicles/drivers where the VNPR records, taken at entry ports, identify them as having come into the country more than 6 months ago and still not registered with the DVLA.

They can’t act against vehicles even when the visual evidence is that they have had their (foreign) plates changed.

If you are a UK driver, even the variation in screw holes has to be explained with evidence of a legal plate change.

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Screw holes? Steady there Old Guy, are you on the wrong forum?:slight_smile: