Foreign unregistered vehicles

ElephantBoy57

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/crime/parents-slammed-police-car-stopped-unrestrained-children-west-yorkshire-2980307

I like watching the police programs on TV and I have noticed a number of foreign cars being stopped.

Is it a problem for the police, are the people driving around in these cars evading tax, MOT and insurance?

Scrapit

Really? That's a question?

AdrianC

ElephantBoy57 said:

I like watching the police programs on TV

Do you believe them?

Is it a problem for the police, are the people driving around in these cars evading tax, MOT and insurance?

It's perfectly legal to temporarily import a vehicle for your use while you're visiting another country. Lots of people do it with British-registered vehicles, when they go on holiday in the summer.
It's not legal to do so for longer than a certain period, or to do so while you're resident in the other country. Lots of people do it with British-registered vehicles, when they're "ex-pats" on a Costa...

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

(BTW, if they're "unregistered", how do you know they're "foreign"? Just because of where the steering wheel is?)

Dr_Crypto

Most likely they vehicles are registered in their home country.
There is said to be an issue with people keeping their vehicles on foreign plates and documents for longer than they are meant to but I’ve no idea how big an issue it is.
If a foreign driver commits an offence a shadow licence is created with the DVLA so any points etc can be recorded since the UK doesn’t have access to foreign DVLAs (except some limited reciprocal arrangements with the RoI). 

ElephantBoy57

AdrianC said:

ElephantBoy57 said:

I like watching the police programs on TV

Do you believe them?

I watch real-life TV documentaries, such as 'Traffic Cops' on the BBC, its first episode was in 2003

AdrianC

ElephantBoy57 said:

AdrianC said:

ElephantBoy57 said:

I like watching the police programs on TV

Do you believe them?

I watch real-life TV documentaries, such as 'Traffic Cops' on the BBC, its first episode was in 2003

That's nice.

Do you actually believe them?

knightstyle

There is a rented house near us and when occupied by some Polish men there were several, 4 or5, Polish and Romanian cars in our road. The same cars for over a year, they never took the cars back home so they must have been illegal but there is nothing to stop them doing this.
Another neighbour has just had her car written off by an uninsured lorry hitting her.  So yes I want more random checks on vehicles.

ElephantBoy57

AdrianC said:

That's nice.
Do you actually believe them?

They do sometimes give information as to what happened to the person committing the offence. I understand that they are allowed 6 months before the cars needs to be 'registered'.

There is very little to believe or not believe, they use bodycams/dashcams or have someone with a camera in the back seat.

AdrianC

knightstyle said:

...but there is nothing to stop them doing this.

Yes, there is.

The law. Enforced by the police.

Another neighbour has just had her car written off by an uninsured lorry hitting her.

There should be a law against it!

burlingtonfl6

My motorhome was broken into by 3 men in a romanian plated bmw. Caught on cctv plus a neighbour took a picture of their reg.
The police apparently have no way or tracking foreign plates and cameras don't work on them either.

facade

It is another example of something that in "Simple Land" where I live, would be trivially easy to do, but seems impossible in The Real World.

all they have to do is ANPR the number plates as they drive off the ferry, then if the Police ANPR them again and there is more than 6 months between driving off the ferry, they impound the car unless/until proof is provided that it left the country and returned less than 6 months ago.

Probably it is as burlingtonfl6 says, and our systems can only recognise UK 'plates, because it has never occurred to Anyone Who Matters that there are any other kind.