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

AndyMc.....

stator wrote: »

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.

But recorded where?

AdrianC

Nope, six months is irrelevant, unless somebody is a tourist here for that period of time (possible, but unlikely).


If they are UK resident, then they should not be driving a foreign-registered car. Full stop. End of. No leeway. Nationality irrelevant, only place of residence.


https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/temporary-imports

AndyMc.....

AdrianC wrote: »

Nope, six months is irrelevant, unless somebody is a tourist here for that period of time (possible, but unlikely).


If they are UK resident, then they should not be driving a foreign-registered car. Full stop. End of. No leeway. Nationality irrelevant, only place of residence.


https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/temporary-imports

Six months is relevant without definition of live. They could claim to live in their country of origin and merely stay at an address in the UK while they are working here.

Car_54

AdrianC wrote: »

If they are UK resident, then they should not be driving a foreign-registered car. Full stop. End of. No leeway. Nationality irrelevant, only place of residence.

I seem to remember this being discussed on a forum (possibly this one), where no-one could point to any legislation (as distinct from a statement on the .gov website) to support that assertation. Can you?

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.

George_Michael wrote: »

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 wrote: »

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"

Not really.
What davidwood681stated was that that the police had no way to monitor foreign plates and that the technology they have (ANPR) only works on UK number plates.
This was incorrect as ANPR can read (and are therefore monitoring) the majority of foreign number plates on vehicles in the UK therefore those foreign plates can be monitored and if the number is on the PNC, then it will flag a warning if it's picked up by a manned or unmanned camera.

AdrianC

Car_54 wrote: »

I seem to remember this being discussed on a forum (possibly this one), where no-one could point to any legislation (as distinct from a statement on the .gov website) to support that assertation. Can you?

Temporary import is internationally defined by the Vienna Conventions on Road Traffic, which the UK is a signatory to.


If a vehicle is temporarily imported, then some of UK road traffic law does not apply.
If it's not temporarily imported - and if the keeper/driver is a UK resident, then it kinda isn't by definition - then all of it applies, including the registration requirements.


There's no difference between EU and non-EU, and brexit will make no difference.

AndyMc.....

AdrianC wrote: »

Temporary import is internationally defined by the Vienna Conventions on Road Traffic, which the UK is a signatory to.


If a vehicle is temporarily imported, then some of UK road traffic law does not apply.
If it's not temporarily imported - and if the keeper/driver is a UK resident, then it kinda isn't by definition - then all of it applies, including the registration requirements.


There's no difference between EU and non-EU, and brexit will make no difference.

So what defines a uk resident?

AdrianC

AndyMc..... wrote: »

So what defines a uk resident?

Where somebody is resident is far from exclusive to vehicle registration questions.

AndyMc.....

AdrianC wrote: »

Where somebody is resident is far from exclusive to vehicle registration questions.

So when do they have to register the vehicle before 6 months?

Iceweasel

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?

Have you really seen a vehicle showing a BL plate?

AFAIK a BL registration code doesn't exist - the nearest would be Bolivia which is BOL - I wouldn't expect to see many of them in the UK.

Would you perhaps have meant Bulgaria? - which is BG.

The only way the insurance can be checked is if a Police Officer stops the car and asks - same as a UK vehicle in other European countries.

I know for sure that Belgian police for example can certainly access the UK data base at Swansea to check a keeper's home address details - even before the vehicle is stopped.

But they have no access to the insurers data base AFAIK