ROAD tax cheats in East Lancashire risk having their cars clamped, towed away and turned into cubes of crushed metal.

That is the hard-hitting message from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency which is clamping down, literally, on an estimated 37,000 road tax cheats in Lancashire alone.

The DVLA reckons the national loss through road tax evasion each year is £175 million.

From November, the DVLA will employ wheelclamping contractors to seek out road tax evaders and clamp their vehicles.

During a pilot scheme in London last year around two-thirds of those vehicles impounded were disposed of by crushing because their owners never collected them.

Vehicles will first of all be clamped and then towed away and impounded if they are not claimed within 24 hours. The release penalties will be high - £68 to remove a clamp and £135 plus a valid tax disc to recover an impounded vehicle.

There will also be a storage fee of £12 per day and any vehicle not claimed within five weeks will be disposed of by crushing or selling at auction.

If a valid tax disc is not produced, owner's will have to pay a surety of £100 for a car or motorbike and up to £500 for any other vehicle.

The surety payment will be forfeit if a valid disc is not produced within two weeks.

In addition, owners of unlicensed vehicles face the prospect of prosecution and fines of up to £1,000.

Haydn Madoc, head of enforcement for DVLA, said: "Law abiding motorists have nothing to fear but road tax cheats should beware as they could end up carless and penniless.

"Honest motorists who regularly pay their road tax are fed up with seeing this hard core continually getting away with dodging it."

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