More Stealth Taxes!

Unwitting motorists face £1,000 fines as thousands of photocard driving licences expire and they are unwittingly driving without a valid licence.

They risk prosecution after failing to spot the extremely small print on their photocard licence which says it automatically expires after 10 years and has to be renewed – even though drivers are licensed to drive until the age of 70.

They said officials had failed to publicise sufficiently the fact that new-style licences – unlike the old paper ones – expire after a set period and have to be renewed.

To rub salt into wounds, drivers will have to a pay £17.50 to renew their card – a charge which critics have condemned as a ‘stealth tax’ and which will earn the Treasury an estimated £437million over 25 years.