Motorcycle tax evasion claims under fire

Claims that 38 per cent of motorcycles are untaxed are based on flawed research, an insurance firm has claimed.

Government researchers took down details of motorcycles in a roadside survey, then checked DVLA’s database to see how many were taxed.

• 40 per cent of motorcycles untaxed

But the roadside survey was done in July 2007 and DVLA’s database was not checked until September, it has emerged.

Robert Balls of insurance firm Bikesure said: “By this time many of the bikes surveyed were off the road for the winter, legitimately, and so wouldn’t appear in the database.

“Yet they mistakenly assumed those bikes were evading tax. A bike is much easier to take off the road than a car, and hundreds of thousands are stored like this in the winter.”

Bikesure asked Government researchers whether DVLA tax records were checked ‘contemporaneously with the traffic survey’.

They replied: “The data for the VED (vehicle excise duty) survey in June 2006 was checked against the DVLA system in September 2006 to allow for late updates to be made.”

New Government figures for road tax evasion are due to be published on February 14, 2008.