Nearly two-thirds of parking fines issued to foreign-registered vehicles go unpaid, it has been revealed.

KentOnline used Freedom of Information requests to contact the 13 local authorities responsible for issuing tickets in the county to find out how many vehicles from abroad were issued with a penalty charge notice (PCN) over a six-month period and how many paid up.

Overall, 65% remained unpaid three months after the close of the period.

In total, the 12 authorities that responded to our request issued 4,119 tickets to foreign-registered vehicles between July 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022.

Of those, 1,331 drivers paid – that’s just 32%.

More than double that number – 2,682 drivers, or 65% – had not paid by March 31, 2023.

A small number of tickets – 106, or just less than 3% – were cancelled on appeal, or for technical reasons.

It has emerged most authorities do not attempt to pursue the drivers because they have no free access to foreign databases.

Tonbridge and Malling council admitted: “We do not pay to trace foreign vehicle details in other countries. We do not attempt to trace them.”

Dartford council said: “Foreign vehicles are not registered on the DVLA database, so we are unable to proceed if the PCN is not paid. This would be the same for any UK-based vehicle that is unregistered or registered incorrectly.”

We also asked each council for a breakdown of the countries the offending vehicles originated from. Only three councils were able to do so, with the others admitting they do not keep that data.

Using the information supplied by Dover, Canterbury and Dartford councils, we were able to calculate that by far the biggest offender was France, which accounted for 33% of all the parking fines issued in those three areas.

Other nearby European countries such as Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands were next on similar figures, with Romania rounding off the top five.

Thanet District Council was unable to provide us with any information within the time frame, citing staff shortages as the reason.

Gravesham Borough Council had the largest number of unpaid tickets (702) of any authority.

A spokesman said: “This is an issue that is not confined to Gravesham.

“Enforcement in this area is very difficult as there are no agreements in place between the UK and the EU that allow us to obtain details of keepers of vehicles registered in EU countries.”

“There is legislation which requires foreign registered vehicles to register with the DVLA if they have been in the UK for more than six months, but the responsibility for ensuring that happens lies with the DVLA and often they are unable to supply us with the information we require when we apply to them for registered keeper details of those vehicles.”

Medway Council had the second largest number of unpaid tickets – 651 out of 740 issued.

Michael Edwards, Medway Council’s head of transport and parking, said: “Dangerous and illegal parking puts pedestrians as well as other motorists at risk.

“Our civil enforcement officers regularly patrol across Medway and issue penalty charge notices to any vehicles found to be parking illegally.

“If a penalty charge notice is not paid, the matter is referred to our bailiffs who will pursue any outstanding debts owed to the council.”

“Unfortunately, it is more difficult for local authorities to contact the owners of foreign vehicles which receive a penalty charge notice, due to national regulations allowing foreign drivers up to six months to register their vehicle with the DVLA. However, we use a specialist bailiff company to track down and contact registered keepers to obtain any debts owed to the council.

“We do everything we can to pursue these debts, however, we need to ensure we do not spend more in recovering the debt than we would receive if it were paid.”

Of all the authorities, Ashford Borough Council was the most successful at collecting fines, but a spokesman revealed there may be a unique reason for that – at least where foreign-plated HGVs are concerned.

A spokesman said “For some time we have been operating a scheme to control illegal overnight HGV parking in certain parts of our borough. It is a collaboration between the council, KCC and the Department for Transport (DfT).

“Since last September, we have used a contractor to issue enforcement notices and with the agreement of the DfT, they are also allowed to clamp vehicles, even for first-time offences, within specific problem areas between 8pm and 7am Monday to Sunday.”

The vehicles are not freed until the driver has paid the penalty. On average more than 100 vehicles are clamped every month.

The spokesman added: “As we can see from the results, this Ashford-based scheme is proving effective.”

Other authorities do not currently have that legal power.

People’s reaction to the revelations was mixed.

Paul Thomas of Pickering Street, Loose, near Maidstone, a Reform UK supporter, said: “It is another unfair and unreasonable exploitation of UK rules.

“One simple approach would be a system whereby, using ANPR at the approach to ports, a quick check of any online fines and driving offences is run and any offences flagged.”

“Upon checking in the vehicle, this could be raised at the port and the fines settled prior to clearing the vehicle for exit.

“This could also simply include tolls and congestion charges as well as parking fines, as no doubt these will also often go unsettled.

“I bet the amount raised would be significant over a relatively short timeframe.”

Mr Thomas added: There is also the question of whether foreign-registered vehicles on our roads meet our MOT standards.”

Fellow Maidstone resident Stuart Jeffery, from Buckland Road, a Green party councillor, had a different take.

He said: “EU countries manage to enforce these fines by cooperating and sharing data, but even when we were in the EU, the UK refused to take part in data sharing. There seems little chance now given Brexit and the UK government’s hostility to foreign countries, but the government’s attitude is clearly costing us dearly and needs to change.”

Stanley Forecast of Bentlif Close, Maidstone, is a Conservative councillor.

He said: “It is disappointing to read those statistics and see that a vast majority of FPNs issued to foreign-registered vehicles are not paid, while we play the waiting game with domestic vehicles.

“This must also be a kick in the teeth for everyone who parks legally in Kent.

“I don’t speak for Maidstone council, but I am calling on the cabinet to seek avenues for quicker enforcement on foreign vehicles, so that fines are paid while they’re traceable and that we use that money to both expand and cut the price of car parks in Maidstone – especially the town centre.

“More car parks at a cheaper price will encourage legal parking and boost the local economy.”

Businessman Graham Jarvis, who runs Media-Insert Communications, said the problem of pursuing foreign debtors was not confined to parking fines.

He said: “In any business, there is risk. This usually increases whenever the transaction involves an individual or organisation that is established abroad. For a small business like mine, if payments aren’t fulfilled by a client, the costs of debt recovery – including court action overseas – could exceed the amount invoiced.

“This principle applies to any organisation – including councils. There is also the question of whether the foreign jurisdiction will accept any invoice, fine, or financial penalty, and debt from outside of its territory. Language barriers and data protection regimes can add to the costs of reclaiming any debt.

“Given these challenges, and despite some countries banning people from re-entry if they haven’t settled any fines (particularly if they were handed out by a court), it’s not surprising that there are so many foreign nationals literally getting away with not paying their PCNs.

“The government needs to do more to make debt recovery easier from other countries. Councils, despite the understandable risk-benefit decisions they have to make, need to adopt a zero-tolerance policy to ensure more PCNs are paid.

“It’s unfair to local residents to have to pay fines while foreign nationals deliberately or unintentionally fail to do so – perhaps by returning to their home countries.”

“This may need a review of international agreements to allow UK councils easier access to other countries' databases via formal data protection requests for the personal data of the recipients of PCNs.

“At present, this might require a council to take court action in the foreign jurisdiction to gain the required consent.

“The potentially high costs of such action may be deterring councils from chasing PCN debts. Still, the taxpayer deserves better, and more needs to be done to recover these losses.”

Tonbridge and Malling council had the fewest tickets outstanding of any of the authorities – only 19. But it also issued the fewest number – only 36.

Tonbridge and Malling borough councillor Cllr Mark Hood (Green) said: “While the scale of unpaid parking fines for overseas vehicles in Tonbridge and Malling is small in comparison with other districts, the issue is certainly substantial across Kent.

“We need to identify best practice enforcement to ensure that no part of Kent is seen as a soft touch for inconsiderate or dangerous parking by working together and following the example of the best-performing councils.”

The problem is not confined just to parking fines.

Previous research showed that some 3,000 foreign-registered lorries and trucks were avoiding paying the Dartford Crossing toll charge every week.

It accounted for more than £920,000 of lost revenue in 2018.