133k ‘no tax’ cars clamped

THE number of vehicles clamped for being untaxed has surged by 13 per cent to nearly 133,000 a year.

The owners either deliberately dodged tax or forgot to pay it. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency figures for 2017/18 will fuel concerns that the abolition of the paper tax disc in 201 has backfired.

The Government claimed the move would save £10million a year – but it is now estimated that £107million was lost from tax evasion in 2017-18 – three times the £35million in 2013-1 .

The number of unlicensed vehicles has roughly trebled over that period to a total of 755,000.

The Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra were the most clamped models of car – around 6,000 times each. Porsche was the luxury make most likely to be clamped with 199 caught without tax. Bethan Beasley, of the DVLA, said: ‘If you don’t tax it, we’ll clamp it.’