The number of unlicenced and abandoned cars in Essex is nearly twice as high as in neighbouring counties.

Figures compiled by the DVLA show the county has about 52,000 vehicles on the roads without licences, losing the organisation £5.8million in revenue each year.

That compares with 27,000 in Suffolk, 33,000 in Norfolk, 36,000 in Hertfordshire and 25,000 in Cambridgeshire.

Essex County Council disposed of about 10,000 abandoned cars last year compared with 850 in Norfolk and 930 in Peterborough. Southend removed more than 700 in three months.

The Government has announced a crackdown on abandoned cars and licence cheats.

From January next year registered keepers will be legally responsible at all times for licencing their vehicles until they let the DVLA know it has been sold, stolen, is off-road, exported or scrapped. They will be fined £80 if they fail to re-tax their vehicles on time and a minimum £1,000 fine if it goes to court.

It is hoped the new measures will cut down on the problem of abandoned cars.

Chief Supt Mick Thwaites, Southend's police commander, said: "What we are already doing in Southend has gone a long way towards reducing offences like vehicles being dumped and left unregistered on the street.

"By taking them off the streets it quickly stops them being used in crimes like theft and driving off from petrol stations without paying.

"We have started clamping untaxed vehicles and have taken 700 abandoned and untaxed cars off the streets. We found about ten per cent of these were of some interest to us in terms of them having been involved in crimes."

Published Monday, May 26, 2003

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