Mansfield police issue stern warning to drivers of untaxed vehicles

Police in Mansfield are warning the owners of untaxed cars that their vehicles will be seized as officers step up their efforts to track down errant drivers.

Officers from the Operation Reacher Team have been tasked with tracking down untaxed vehicles as part of their day-to-day duties and have been using advanced ANPR technology to catch up with them.

The advanced automatic number-plate recognition technology (ANPR) has already had a strong impact for the force over the last two weeks as the team have seized more than ten vehicles – in Mansfield, Warsop and Forest town.

The force have also made it clear that, financially, it simply isn’t worth not paying the tax as it will cost people far more when they get caught.

Sergeant Jay Lee, of Nottinghamshire Police, explained: “A very small minority of people we come across have genuinely just forgotten to tax their vehicle, but the vast majority know exactly what they are doing and assume, wrongly, that they won’t get caught.

“Unfortunately for them and anyone else who is driving around without tax, the local ANPR system is now able to alert us to untaxed as they are being driven on the roads.

“Unless vehicle owners have a very good excuse, their car will be seized and they’ll have to pay around £100 to get it back within the first 24hours which then doubles to £200 plus other storage costs afterwards.

“In many cases that amount will actually be greater than the cost of taxing the car, so it really isn’t worth taking the risk because we are now more likely than ever to catch up with people.

“And the good news for other road users is that we’ll be fitting in many more stops in the weeks ahead. So if you are driving an untaxed vehicle please stop it and get it taxed. The last thing we want to do as police officers is to take people’s transport away, but if we find you driving without tax we often have no other option.”

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