Catching up with tax dodgers
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• The problem of catching up with commercial vehicle tax-dodgers who moved about the country was spotlighted by a Government spokesman last week.
Speaking in the Lords, Lord Winterbottom said that some kinds of goods vehicle operators moved about the country quite frequently and over quite long distances. Experience showed that they were very difficult to catch up with.
The type of people he had in mind were operators of dump trucks, who followed exca vations around the country "they are as mobile as the navigators who dug the canals''.
Lord Winterbottom was explaining why the Government opposed a Tory move to limit to four months the arrears which could be claimed by the Minister of Transport when vehicle duty had not been paid.
This change would, he said, be a positive encouragement to these individuals to disappear from sight. Limiting the penalty to four months would encourage individuals to get away with as much tax as they could. Lord Winterbottom gave an assurance that the Minister would use his powers with the utmost sympathy when duty had not been renewed—and the Opposition did not press for the change to four months, The discussion came during a debate on the Vehicle and Driving Licences Bill, which was later altered slightly so that Ministry officials will not always have to attend court for the hearing of prosecutions.
Lord Winterbottom noted that copies of plating and test certificates were sent to the Ministry's goods vehicle centre at Swansea, and it would be necessary for an official from the centre to attend a court to prove that no plating or test certificate had been issued, or that the period of validity had expired.
This would be very time-consuming and could mean that additional staff might have to be employed.
The Government wanted to amend the Bill so as to enable the relevant evidence to be given in the form of a document—a change the Lords agreed to without a vote.