Vehicle checks recover hundreds of pounds in fines
4 February 2010
Manchester City Council has recovered more than £750 in unpaid fines following a day of action in Baguley.
Special patrols used state-of-the-art equipment to track down illegal motorists during an operation last week.
The operation was organised by Street Environment Manager, Mike Shaw, following concerns about illegal fly-tipping in the area but it also involved police, Manchester City Council officers, teams from HM Revenue & Customs and VOSA. They used automatic number plate recognition to identify motorists who were breaking the law. The equipment alerts the operator if the motorist does not have tax or insurance.
Manchester City Council Deputy Leader, Councillor Jim Battle said: “If people are prepared to drive their vehicles without being taxed or insured, they are often involved in other aspects of criminality. This operation has helped to identify people who are committing benefit fraud and other criminal activities. It also helped us to recover hundreds of pounds in unpaid fines for traffic offences."
Inspector Debbie Robson from the Northenden Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “This particular operation was successful and demonstrates how effective the ANPR cameras can be in assisting officers with finding people who are prepared to openly flaunt the law.
“We hope that these recent arrests will demonstrate to people that criminals are not welcome in south Manchester and we will be watching anyone who thinks they can drive without tax and insurance without getting caught. Operations like this will continue throughout the year, at various times and locations throughout the division.”
During
the operation HM Revenue & Customs officers were checking vehicles
for the misuse of rebated fuel, commonly know as red diesel.
Graham
Forbes, HMRC Special Investigations Manager said:"HM Revenue &
Customs work closely with other law enforcement agencies inland such as
local councils, regional police forces and various licensing bodies as
part of our routine work to tackle the illegal oils trade. In this
case, we were working alongside other agencies to ascertain if any
vehicles were using rebated fuels such as ‘red diesel’ illegally on
public roads and after spot checking 28 vehicles I am pleased to say
that none of the vehicles were.”
HMRC challenged 20 commercial and 8 private vehicles as part of this exercise.
Throughout the operation, which ran on Altrincham Road in Baguley last Thursday ( 28 January) one person was questioned about benefit fraud, VOSA checked 19 vehicles There were 6 immediate prohibitions and 5 delayed prohibition notices. One person was stopped without a driving licence and two without insurance. One person was arrested for a drugs offence.
