New figures show that thousands of drivers in foreign-registered carsare not paying fines when they break the rules of the road in London.Around thirty times more foreign registered vehicles are now caughtcommitting motoring offences on CCTV than in 2004. However, of the118,526 caught on camera last year, only 4,198 paid their fines.
A small proportion of the cars and lorries with foreign number plateswho are picked up via road side cameras, are actually traced in theirhome country and then issued with a fine. The number who then pay up,fell last year. In 2007 42 per cent of foreign-registered drivers whowere sent a penalty notice for motoring offences paid up, compared tojust 25 per cent in the year to 31 July 2008.
Jenny Jones said:
"It is a scandal that we have over a hundred thousand known occasionslast year when foreign registered drivers broke our rules and got awaywith it. Why are we allowing these drivers to go in bus lanes, or tospeed, or to dodge the congestion and low emission zone charges withimpunity? Drivers avoiding fines are costing London millions in lostrevenue, but more importantly it means that these foreign drivers areignoring the rules of the road. If drivers know they cannot be tracedthey will not bother to obey the rules and that has important safetyimplications for everyone."
"We have known for a while that some Londoners are deliberatelyregistering their cars abroad to avoid being detected. This is bad forsafety and – if we could get rid of them – it would help clear theroads. We need a change in the law to allow local traffic wardens andpolice to check the legality of all cars, including those with overseesnumber plates."