Caught littering? Make sure your car tax is up to date!

I was driving along minding my own business, when the car in front of me braked suddenly. No big deal, I always leave a generous gap in case things like that happen. Thinking nothing of it, I carried on driving.

I then noticed the driver of the car in front of me was smoking a cigarette. Again, no big deal, no law against smoking while driving unless there’s a child passenger (in the UK).

But then I see the driver throw their cigarette butt out of the open window. I hate littering and like to find ways to entertain myself while driving, so I decided to memorise the car’s numberplate, because why not. If they’re careless enough to litter without a second thought, maybe they’re also careless enough to not keep up with their responsibilities as a car owner! I.e. their car insurance and MOT (annual inspection).

When I got home, I wanted to see if I could still remember that numberplate from earlier, and was successful. I entered it into the UK government website to check whether this car’s tax and MOT is up to date.

What did I find? The tax is overdue by over a month! The car was being driven illegally! Being caught with an untaxed vehicle can incur a fine of up to £1000!

As I said, I really hate littering. So I submitted an anonymous report online with the car’s details to inform the DVLA that the car’s tax is out of date. I doubt anything will come of it and as the report was submitted anonymously, I’ll never know if the driver will see any consequences. But it’s nice to know that it’s possible, all because they don’t use a damn ashtray in their car.

TL;DR: Don’t litter and keep your car tax up to date, there could be a very bored and petty person watching.

EDIT: Didn’t expect more than about 2 upvotes on this lol, and wasn’t seeking validation either but I’m glad this isn’t being seen as evil or a massive overreaction! I just thought it was funny as I’m not usually petty and have never reported illegal stuff before. Littering just really rubs me the wrong way.

As for the ACTUAL penalty for being caught without car tax in the UK (if anyone is interested??), the initial consequence is an £80 fine. If it’s paid within 28 days of receiving a letter, the fine can be reduced to just £40. It’s only if letters get ignored and the case gets taken to court that the fine could get anywhere close to £1000. Monthly computer checks are also run so the driver may already be aware of the discrepancy or will be soon anyway, so I definitely haven’t exposed an otherwise unseen crime. I don’t enjoy the thought of personally making someone receive a fine anywhere close to that maximum as there’s a pandemic etc, I just wanted to share my petty story :)

EDIT 2: I changed the bit about car insurance as this isn’t publicly available information and didn’t realise at the time, so only checked for tax and MOT.