Is it any wonder? (From Dudley News)

Is it any wonder?

10:30am Wednesday 6th June 2007 in Letters

SINCE March Dudley Council has removed 21 illegal cars from our roads.

This is a small but worthwhile step in the right direction but wouldn't be necessary if the DVLA wasn't so useless.

Perhaps if all local authorities did the same and the penalties for illegal car use were much higher there would be an appreciable drop in the well over a million illegal cars currently on the road. This would make the roads safer for all legal motorists and our insurance would cost £30 less since this is the hidden addition to all our policies to pay for the damage done by the illegal ones.

However I note that recently a teenager of 17, who hadn't passed his test, caught driving with no licence, no insurance no MOT was fined £120.

In recent court case reports at my local magistrates' court I noted that 11 illegal drivers were fined an average of £113.

I hope the magistrates are pleased with themselves for giving such a very clear lesson to all illegal drivers, particularly young ones.

If you don't bother paying for lessons, insurance, road fund tax or a MOT and buy a cheap car for cash you can save thousands of pounds even if you do get caught.

If you have an accident you can run away and buy another cheap car leaving the other poor honest sucker to claim on his insurance.

Moreover, with few if any traffic police on the road, speed cameras won't deter you since these are only effective in fining responsible motorists who do bother to tax, insure and properly maintain their cars and can therefore be traced.

Is it any wonder there are nearly one and half million untaxed cars on the road?

If they were removed there would be far less need for congestion charges.

R Bruton
Dudley