How do TfL know that a foreign-registered car is (or isn't) exempt from the Con charge? How much data-sharing is going on EU-wide, and is Data Protection legislation (like Human Rights legislation) neatly being sidestepped?
I am curious as to how many non-paying foreign drivers have been billed, once back home, and of those how many have actually paid up.
Just curious.
Edited by Pugugly on 10/03/2008 at 18:32
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I see loads of foreign registered cars in the parts of London that my work takes me. Some even have residents parking permits (how can councils give a foreign-plated car a 'residents' permit?). I am sure TfL have a zero chance of getting Con Charge out of foreign registered cars and rely instead of clamping them via their modern-day dog-catcher vans - you know the ones that prowl the streets looking for cars that haven't paid.
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TFL don't know - ANPR don't read the plates.
Some time last year Capita on behalf of TFL resorted to human processing (as in - people reading the plates on pictures manually)of the foreign cars escaping CC and at fairly large cost queried foreign equivalents of DVLA to the whereabouts of the registered owners. They then sent CC fines abroad and after being completely ignored by most of the accused, sold the fines to various local debt collectors across Europe. On Ken's orders. In process they breached at least half a dozen European laws, including obtaining personal details under false pretences (non payment of non internationally reckognised tolls is not a crime, merely a contravention and only by local standards) and then selling on personal information to third parties without valid court order (neither British nor local).
As for "how can councils give a foreign played car a "resident" permit, the answer is very simple - there is nothing that would prohibit foreign national from buying or renting property and thus becoming a resident of a country. There is also nothing that would prohibit him from driving his own car while he or she remains resident of the said country. As 99% of British expats will surely confirm...
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Yes, but I thought the law allowed 6 months use of a foreign-reg. car in the UK, after which it has to be registered locally. If said foreign car is owned by someone who is buying or even renting in the UK, this would suggets they are going to be ihere for more than 6 months and so should register their cars locally.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 10/03/2008 at 13:39
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This is apparently a big scam at the moment.
Lots of these foreign registered cars are RHD and have a UK Tax Disc in the window.....
MVP
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"Yes, but I thought the law allowed 6 months use of a foreign-reg. car in the UK"
Urban myth. For EU registered cars there is no such law, no way of monitoring it, and no way of enforcing it. Is it 6 months in total, 6 months out of every 12, 6 months cumulative?
The permits are 'house owner' permits, not residents. Plus under EU law you can be resident of more than one country. For tax purposes you have to declare a country, but for everything else it's open house.
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Whole can of worms opened up here, by the sounds of it. I can foresee the day when the majority of cars on roads in (UK/London/name your place) are foreign registered and over half the population avoids speeding, parking and congestion scams, sorry, fines. For every single rule, there is a way round it.
You, Sir! 6 months' residence? Are you going to register your car here? Quick return trip to Belfast on the ferry, nip over to Eire and back again and the 6 months are broken. Much the same principle for those wanting to avoid tax and not wanting to rack up 180 days' residence.
Number plates? ID cards? Don't make me laugh.
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