Clampdown on unlicensed vehicles

There are about 24,000 motorised vehicles that have not been covered by a road licence for a number of years, Transport Minister Censu Galea said yesterday.

Out of this total, 8,000 still have the old licence plates while the rest have licence plates that were introduced after 1995. It is, however, probable that a substantial number of these vehicles have been scrapped, he said.

The minister said that details about the ownership of such vehicles were based on the information held at the Department of Licensing and Testing.

It is the ministry's intention to see what has happened to these vehicles and whether they have been scrapped or garaged. By means of legal notice 13 of 2004, the ministry is calling on the owners who have scrapped or garaged their car, motorcycle or any other motorised vehicle without informing the DLT to regularise their position.

"Every owner who would like to regularise his/her position is being asked to contact the DLT in writing. Owners have till the end of July to contact the department and, thereafter, they have a month in which to produce the necessary documents," the minister said.

In order to regularise their position, applicants who want to inform the department that they have scrapped their vehicle have to pay all pending fines and confirm their statement under oath. They will be exempted from paying outstanding road licence fees.

Applicants who want to scrap their vehicle have to pay all pending fines and present all documents including the number plates. They will be exempted from paying pending road licence fees.

Owners who want to inform the DLT that their vehicle had been or was being garaged would have to pay all pending fines and corroborate their statement under oath. They will only have to pay 44 per cent of their outstanding road licence fees.

Owners who want to pay arrears and keep their vehicle on the road would have to pay all pending fines, pay the current road licence and present all documents required by the department. They will have to pay 67 per cent of their outstanding road licences.

When it was argued with the minister that these reductions and amnesty on arrears sent out the wrong message, in the sense that people would be given to understand that it was best not to pay on time because the government would eventually come up with an amnesty of some sort, Mr Galea said this was a situation the government wanted to put right.

The DLT, however, would take civil and criminal action against anyone giving the wrong details or who did not contact the department in the stipulated time.

The minister also referred to legal notice 405 of 2003 which gave local councils the right to remove vehicles with a road licence that had expired by more than three months.

Before retrieving these vehicles, owners would have to pay the road licence for the current year, all arrears as well as the towing fine.

Owners who have their vehicle removed to be scrapped would be liable to a fine of Lm500.

Further details may be obtained from the DLT on 2124 7955/6.