TOUTS PAY £10M FOR DRIVER DETAILS

THE DVLA has been accused of colluding with parking cowboys by selling them drivers’ details for almost £10million a year.

Private firms pay the quango for information on more than 9,000 motorists a day. Accessing the names and addresses allows them to hound drivers to pay ‘fines’ for staying too long.

They can have county court judgments passed against the motorists, crippling their finances for six years.

Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency figures show that in the past three years it has doubled its income from private parking firms, rising from £4.7million a year to £9.3million.

Last year it received more than 3.5million applications for drivers’ details from 93 private parking companies, with the applications costing £2.50 at a time. One firm paid £3million for 1,200,284 requests.

A DVLA spokesman said: ‘The relevant legislation allows for a fee to be charged to cover the cost of processing requests, to ensure that the cost is borne by the requestor and not passed on to the taxpayer.’