How are EU vehicles checked for insurance tax etc in the UK?

JamesFuller

I have always wondered seeing so many BL, RO number plates whether these drivers making a living in the UK are checked for insurance, tax etc.

How are EU vehicles checked for insurance tax etc in the UK? Or do they get away with it?

markudman

That's a good question I think I would like to see the answer to this as well

stator

They don't. But if a vehicle is recorded as being in the UK for over 6 months they will fine the driver, as they have to convert to UK plates after 6 months.

Johno100

Suppose they are checked the same way UK vehicles are checked when they are taken abroad.

Or is this just another thread to have a go at Johnny foreigner before the drawbridge comes up upon Brexit?

Raxiel

I sold a right hand drive car to a Polish gent earlier this year. He told me he was going to export it (along with 3 others he'd bought that day).

Seemed odd to buy RHD cars for the continent, but I've since found out they export them, re-register in their home country and then bring them back to the UK.

Seems a lot of hassle but I guess they figure it's in their interest.

I don't know how rigorously the police/DVLA pursue infractions on foreign plates, but I bet most PPC's don't even bother issuing their invoices.

shaun_from_Africa

Johno100 wrote: »

Suppose they are checked the same way UK vehicles are checked when they are taken abroad.

Or is this just another thread to have a go at Johnny foreigner before the drawbridge comes up upon Brexit?

Why is someone asking a legitimate question about how vehicle tax is checked deemed to be having a go at foreigners?
On a similar note, some people who pay the toll at the Dartford crossing are probably very peed off that they are subsidising a great many foreign drivers who don't bother paying the charge knowing they will never get caught or chased for the money.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-3082175/Nearly-quarter-million-foreign-drivers-evaded-Dartford-Crossing-automated-toll-four-months-booths-scrapped.html

By posting that, am I also having a go at Johnny foreigner?

wgl2014

Dealing with any issues goes back to old school Police enforcement (roadside stops etc). Unfortunately the number of dedicated traffic officers has been decimated and most local cops are unlikely to be too interested unless the car is involved in some other kind of offending.

davidwood681

Well we were broken into earlier this year. Chap next door saw who did it, disturbed them and they drove off in a BMW with a Romanian reg plate attached.

Police attended ( a day or so later ) and my neighbour came round with the details of the car.

This is when we were told that the police have no way of tracking or monitoring foreign plates. If they see the car they can pull it over but the technology the police has only works on UK plates.

George_Michael

davidwood681 wrote: »

This is when we were told that the police have no way of tracking or monitoring foreign plates. If they see the car they can pull it over but the technology the police has only works on UK plates.

I think they were just bullsh*****g you so that they didn't have do any policing.

ANPR cameras can read most foreign plates apart from Arabic, Oriental and Cyrillic alphabets.
About 7 years ago, the UK port authority undertook trials at Portsmouth and Harwich using ANPR systems to record foreign commercial vehicles entering and leaving the UK and since then, the quality of pictures captured and the speed of that capture have increased massively.


Provided the police had a record of the number plate of the vehicle concerned and this number was flagged on the pnc, if it was picked up on an ANPR camera, they would have been able to stop it.

Car_54

George_Michael wrote: »

I think they were just bullsh*****g you so that they didn't have do any policing.

ANPR cameras can read most foreign plates apart from Arabic, Oriental and Cyrillic alphabets.


Provided the police had a record of the number plate of the vehicle concerned and this number was flagged on the pnc, if it was picked up on an ANPR camera, they would have been able to stop it.

Isn't that more or less what they said?

They can read the plate, but they have no way of tracing the keeper etc. as they would with a UK car. However, "If they see the car they can pull it over"

AndyMc.....

JamesFuller wrote: »

I have always wondered seeing so many BL, RO number plates whether these drivers making a living in the UK are checked for insurance, tax etc.

How are EU vehicles checked for insurance tax etc in the UK? Or do they get away with it?

For insurance they pull them over and require them to produce it.

As long as they play by the rules they don’t need tax.