Drivers' false address costs millions

This is today's splash story in the Metro - and I must say that I think it's fantastic.
If you don't want to be monitored this is a straight-forward way of dealing with speeding and congestion charge tickets. As I have said in previous posts it is fairly straight forward to register your vehicle in France.
And perfectly legal.
In the story I confess to being registered at an address in Scotland. Though I live in London.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Drivers_false_address_con_costs_millions&in_article_id=471842&in_page_id=34

Thousands of motorists are dodging fines by registering their cars at shadow addresses, costing the country millions of pounds in lost revenue.
The drivers flout the law with impunity by telling the licensing authorities their vehicle is at another location and then ignoring all requests and court orders to pay fines.
With no onus on the true resident at the 'care of' address to say where the registered owner lives, police and local authorities can rarely be bothered to chase them.
Metropolitan Police Authority member Jenny Jones said the deception was costing millions of pounds in lost revenue for London alone.
She added: 'They are getting away with murder. They can cause crashes and cause real problems and we cannot catch them.'
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency allows motorists to register their vehicles with 'care of' addres­ses, which might include a 'friend, doctor, hotel or hostel'.
The scheme was introduced to help people such as travellers who might not be able to provide a permanent address.
But some have cottoned on to the loophole as a way to avoid parking fines, congestion fees and even fines for speeding and other motoring offences.
Some Britons also use the ruse of registering their cars at their second home abroad. Up to 700,000 penalties issued every year to foreign- registered vehicles go uncollected.
Notorious anti-speed camera campaigner Captain Gatso claimed he offered an address in Chelmsford where 'hundreds of motorists have registered their cars'.
He said: 'I have been doing this for many years as have thousands of motorists in the UK. I have three vehicles registered with a friend in Scotland and I live in London.
'I never pay the congestion charge or fines. Everything goes in the bin except the tax disc. Police can't be bothered to track down people who don't register at their home.'
The DVLA said it had to accept details it was given at face value.
But it added: 'It is an offence to knowingly give false or misleading dec­larations and information.'
Ms Jones added: 'It is down to police to follow this through. Far too many forces seem to give up.'

Labour and their database obsession

One of the reasons we are against the building of a Big Brother database is that it's wide-open to abuse.
Countries in Europe can have access to details of British drivers via DVLA but we can't access foreign databses.
And Zanu Labour have just signed an agreement which leaves the door even wider open.
Basically, you could be accussed of a crime in the EU and face extradition without any recourse to 'justice'. For instance, a car with a false plate is spotted near a crime scene and hey presto you're winging your way to a foreign court to explain yourself.
You will be branded a criminal and there's sod all you can do about it. Well done to wee Gordon Clown.
Of course the worst aspect to this is to do something perfectly legal in this country (slag off a foreign head of state for instance) - but which is illegal in another country. And, bang, off you go to face a prison sentence. Again, well done to our lawmakers for their understanding of the legal process.
The Telegraph does quite a good piece on it (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/3761189/Innocent-Britons-may-be-branded-criminals-abroad-after-Big-Brother-databases-agreement.html)

** Whilst we are on the subject. Let's leave aside the Government's inability to keep private data private, or deliver a computer system on time or on budget and think again about the system to log every child in the UK.
This is obviously a database by the back door but our worry is that 330,000 people will have access to it. That's 330,000 nosey, bloody-minded civil and public servants snooping around for info on you and your family.
But wait!
The Government have just made clear the figure is closer 480,000 people. And, of course, not one of them will abuse the info or even, God forbid, be a paedo looking for disfunctional families to befriend.
This has disaster written all over it. And as usual with Zanu Labour we haven't voted for it and we haven't debated the merits of it.
Disgraceful.