GETTING tough on road-tax dodgers, the government launches a crackdown.

Untaxed cars will be clamped in the streets and owners will face fines of up to £1,000, with the final sanction of their car being crushed as scrap metal or sold if it is not retrieved within five weeks.

It is, of course, high time that such a purge took place.

Road-tax cheats are costing the country £175million a year.

They are often also MoT test and insurance dodgers whose evasion makes the roads more dangerous and bumps up the premiums of law-abiding motorists.

But will this crackdown really work?

The danger is that it starts off as a deterrent "scare" campaign and diminishes into one of minimal effect as a clamp is put on the overheads of sustaining a truly potent drive against dodgers.

Resources must be allocated and the law rigorously applied so that the dodgers know it is not worth the risk and so that the annual checks on MoT and insurance that are involved in the present system of road-tax purchase are enhanced.

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