Porsche is No.1 prestige car brand clamped in Britain: agency

LONDON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- They are the most expensive cars driven on Britain's roads, but hundreds were ensnared by clampers in the past Year for not paying the official road tax.

Figures revealed Wednesday by Britain's DVLA, the Driver and Vehicle License Agency, showed that Porsche was the number one prestige car brand clamped last Year.

Almost 350 prestige cars were clamped in 2018, including 199 Porches, 28 Abarths, 23 Maseratis, 20 Bentleys and even a Hummer. Many of the vehicles had price tags running into tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In the last financial Year, DVLA said 133,000 vehicles were clamped for being untaxed.

Taking the top spots overall were the most popular make and models on British roads, with 6,000 each of the Ford Focus and Vauxhall Astra.

Also clamped were 73 London Taxis, 5 Harley-Davidsons motor cycles, 4 motorhomes and even a bus.

Still making the top ten most popular color of vehicles to be clamped was silver with more than 32,000 clamped during the Year, 2,000 more than the previous Year. Black vehicles just pipped blue vehicles into second place and 690 gold vehicles were also clamped.

All vehicles need to pay road tax, which the amount varying depending on engine size and type of engine.

DVLA's senior enforcement leader Bethan Beasley said: "These figures show that it doesn't matter what type of vehicle you own, whether it's a sports car, motorhome or even a bus, if you don't tax it, we'll clamp it."

The agency has the power to impound clamped vehicles if owners don't pay a tax and a release fine.

Some vehicles are even sent to the crusher's yard for not being taxed.