Nearly 29,000 Drivers Illegally Removed DVLA Wheel Clamps Last Year

Nearly 29,000 drivers illegally removed DVLA wheel clamps from their vehicles last year, according to figures released by transport minister Simon Lightwood. The data, covering “immobilisation devices” fitted to untaxed vehicles, shows 28,642 clamps were unlawfully stripped off in 2025, a 37 per cent rise on the 20,855 reported two years earlier. The AA says the trend points to a wider road safety problem, as the vehicles being clamped in the first place are rarely being run by careful, conscientious owners.

The figures come as the DVLA confirms that more than 150,000 untaxed vehicles were clamped across the UK in 2025, while 98.7 per cent of drivers pay their vehicle tax on time. The gap between those two numbers, a small minority of non-payers and a rising number of people willing to cut off an official clamp rather than deal with it, is what has prompted the agency’s latest enforcement campaign.

Where You Live Changes Your Odds

Getting clamped is not evenly spread across the country. London recorded the highest number of untaxed vehicle clampings of any postcode area, with 16,557 offences identified. Manchester followed with 9,174, then Birmingham with 7,369, Cardiff with 4,213 and Glasgow with 4,207, rounding out the five worst-affected areas. Drivers in these cities face a significantly higher chance of being caught than those in areas with less DVLA enforcement activity, regardless of whether the underlying rate of non-payment is similar nationally.

Why Illegally Removed Clamps Are a Wider Safety Issue

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy at the AA, warned that untaxed vehicles, and their owners, are likely to pose a threat to other road users. He said an untaxed vehicle is frequently also uninsured, without a valid MOT, and has often racked up unpaid tickets for speeding and other offences. The fact that someone has the tools and knowledge to remove an enforcement clamp, he said, suggests these are exactly the vehicles the authorities most need to get off the road, not the ones that should be back on it within hours.

That combination is a real concern for every other driver on the road. A vehicle with no tax, no insurance and no current MOT that has been forcibly freed from a clamp is not subject to any of the checks that are supposed to keep dangerous vehicles away from other traffic. Every illegally removed clamp represents a vehicle the DVLA judged unsafe enough to immobilise, now back on the road entirely outside the system.

What Actually Happens When You Are Clamped

If the DVLA clamps a vehicle, the registered keeper must pay a £100 release fee before it can be freed. If the vehicle’s tax still cannot be confirmed at that point, a further £160 surety fee is charged. Vehicles that are not resolved can be taken to an impound, where a daily storage fee applies, and after 14 days an unclaimed vehicle can be disposed of at auction or sent for scrap. The costs escalate quickly for what, in the vast majority of cases, started as a missed renewal rather than any intention to avoid paying.

A Problem That Keeps Growing

The 37 per cent rise in illegally removed clamps over two years mirrors a broader pattern in DVLA enforcement data. Kent alone recorded nearly 17,000 untaxed vehicles clamped between 2022 and September 2024, split between 10,731 in 2022 and 2023 combined and a further 6,172 in the months that followed, according to Local Democracy Reporting Service figures obtained from the DVLA. Kent County Council does not participate in or benefit financially from the clamping activity carried out in its area, as vehicle tax revenue goes into general government funds rather than back to local authorities responsible for road maintenance, a point local councillors have raised as a source of frustration given the state of the roads those same drivers use.

Roughly 98 per cent of vehicles on the road nationally are taxed correctly at any given time, which the DVLA points to as evidence that the system works for the overwhelming majority. The rising clamp-removal figures suggest the small minority who do not comply are becoming more determined to avoid enforcement rather than more numerous, a distinction that is worth remembering when judging how effective any single campaign is likely to be.

The Campaign Behind the Numbers

The DVLA’s response has been a national campaign called Nobody Wins, fronted by a talking wheel clamp character named Clampy, designed to remind the UK’s more than 40 million drivers to keep their vehicle tax current. DVLA chief executive Tim Moss said most drivers keep their tax up to date without any issue, but that the consequences of missing a renewal can escalate fast. He said the agency reminds motorists when tax is due and treats clamping as a last resort, noting that renewing is quick and can be done online or by phone in a couple of minutes.

The frozen thresholds and rising costs elsewhere in motoring make it easier than ever to lose track of a renewal date. Vehicle tax rules have already caught out thousands of drivers this year through a separate frozen threshold, a reminder that the system rarely adjusts in a driver’s favour even when a mistake is entirely unintentional.

How to Fight Back

• Set up Direct Debit for vehicle tax. This spreads the cost and removes the risk of a missed renewal date entirely, as payments are taken automatically.
• Check your tax status the moment you are unsure. The DVLA’s online service confirms your vehicle’s tax status instantly and lets you renew in a couple of minutes, 24 hours a day.
• Declare SORN if a vehicle is off the road. A Statutory Off Road Notification is free and prevents a stationary, untaxed vehicle from being clamped, provided it is truly not on a public road.
• Act immediately if you are clamped. Pay the release fee and confirm your tax status as quickly as possible. The longer a vehicle sits clamped, the higher the risk of impound and storage fees on top of the release cost.
• Never attempt to remove a clamp yourself. Doing so is a criminal offence in its own right, separate from the original tax issue, and adds an additional layer of enforcement risk on top of an already costly situation.
• Remember bailiff clamps are different from DVLA clamps. A vehicle can also be clamped by bailiffs for unpaid council debts or penalty charge notices, a separate process with its own release procedure. Confirm which type of clamp you are dealing with before contacting anyone, as the DVLA cannot release a bailiff clamp and vice versa.

A missed vehicle tax renewal is one of the easiest motoring mistakes to make and, if caught early, one of the cheapest to fix. Left unresolved, it escalates through a release fee, a surety charge, storage costs and finally the loss of the vehicle altogether. With enforcement now concentrated so heavily in a handful of major cities, drivers in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow in particular have the least room for a lapsed renewal to go unnoticed.

For most drivers, none of this will ever become relevant. The 98.7 per cent who pay on time will never see a clamp, a release fee or an impound notice. But vehicle tax lapses for ordinary reasons more often than people expect: a car left unused through a house move, a Direct Debit that failed silently after a bank switch, or a renewal reminder that went to an old email address. Each of those scenarios is easy to fix in minutes if caught early, and expensive and stressful if it is not.

Sources:

• GOV.UK, DVLA warns ‘Nobody Wins’ as new campaign targets untaxed vehicles
• GB News, Car tax issues prompt 28,000 drivers to illegally remove wheel clamps despite DVLA crackdown