Foreign drivers have escaped a staggering 23,295 speeding offences in the UK since January last year according to the latest figures from the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).
The road safety charity made a freedom of information request to polices forces across England and Wales in order to discover the size of the problem, which equates to around £2.3 million pounds in lost revenue from unenforced speeding fines. The offences were not pursued, as foreign-registered vehicles driven on UK roads are not registered with the DVLA.
The worst-affected area is Thames Valley, which reported 3,580 offences including one found driving at 102mph in a 70mph zone. Merseyside reported 2,477 offences, the highest speed recording being 87mph in a 70mph zone, while Warwickshire (2,152) and Gwent (2,090) both reported over 2,000 offences, the latter including one driver recorded driving at 99mph in a 70mph zone. In Kent, where 1,954 offences were reported, the highest speed recording was 111mph in a 70mph zone, while the Metropolitan Police recorded 1,586 offences including one foreign-registered vehicle driving at 98mph on the 50mph A406 North Circular Road.
Neil Greig said, the IAM’s director of policy and research, said: “The high numbers of oversees speeders on our roads show how important it is that the UK joins up with the rest of Europe to harmonise motoring offences and give the police extra powers to pursue dangerous drivers. Progress on this issue has been very slow and in the meantime thousands of drivers are avoiding fines and bans simply because their cars cannot be easily traced.”
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