A total of 97,000 £80 penalties will be issued this week to motorists whose discs expired at the end of December. Prompt payment reduces the penalty to £40.

Under the DVLA's new rules, drivers are assumed to be guilty of tax evasion unless they have informed the DVLA that their vehicle has been sold or scrapped or is parked off-road. The DVLA has set a new target of clamping 100,000 vehicles a year, aiming to cut the estimated £200 million lost each year from some 1.75m untaxed vehicles. The DVLA predicts that about one million £80 penalties will be issued this year. As the DVLA has extended the previous “grace period” to two months, the penalties mailed out this week relate to non-renewed tax discs that expired at the end of December.