RUNNING a car legally is an expensive business, once you’ve factored in the initial purchase of the vehicle, the tax, MoT, insurance and running costs.

So it stands to reason that running a car illegally needs to be an even more expensive pursuit, once you’ve taken into account vehicle impounding costs, court appearances and subsequent fines.

Simply put, the risk of getting caught and the resulting punishment must provide a sufficient deterrent for those who are toying with the idea of not renewing their car tax or not bothering to get insurance.

And that hasn’t always appeared to be the case in Bradford. As one politician states in today’s article, there has been a culture of people thinking ‘I’m not going to get caught, so it doesn’t matter’.

However, the huge surge in the number of Bradford drivers who are now being successfully prosecuted for having untaxed vehicles may go some way to changing that troubling attitude.

The jump from 437 such prosecutions in 2015 to 718 in 2016 – a 64 per cent increase – certainly points towards a concerted attempt to get on top of the district’s long-standing problem surrounding untaxed vehicles.

Such action will be welcomed by law-abiding motorists who go to the trouble of paying their way for the convenience and practicality of driving a car.

What’s more, the DVLA’s efforts to rid the roads of untaxed vehicles reinforce the work that is being carried out by police as part of Operation Steerside, the ongoing crackdown on danger drivers.