>Another sneaky trick by our lods and masters. If you have a photocard
>licence it expires after ten years and you have to pay £17.50 to renew it.
>
>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1054636/Motorists-face-1-000-fines-thousands...
>
>
>Thousands of motorists are at risk of being fined up to £1,000 because 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.
>
>Motoring organisations blamed the Government for the fiasco and said 'most'
>drivers believed their licences were for life.
>
>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.
>
>The fiasco has come to light a decade after the first batch of photo
>licences was issued in July 1998, just as the they start to expire.
>
>Official DVLA figures reveal that while 16,136 expired this summer, so far
>only 11,566 drivers have renewed, leaving 4,570 outstanding.
>
>With another 300,000 photocard licences due to expire over the coming year,
>experts fear the number of invalid licences will soar, putting thousands
>more drivers in breach of the law and at risk of a fine.
>
>At the heart of the confusion is the small print on the tiny
>credit-card-size photo licence, which is used in conjunction with the paper
>version.
>
>Just below the driver name on the front of the photocard licence is a series
>of dates and details - each one numbered.
>
>Number 4b features a date in tiny writing, but no explicit explanation as to
>what it means.
>
>The date's significance is only explained if the driver turns over the card
>and reads the key on the back which states that '4b' means 'licence valid
>to'.
>
>Even more confusingly, an adjacent table on the rear of the card sets out
>how long the driver is registered to hold a licence - that is until his or
>her 70th birthday.
>
>A total of 25million new-style licences have been issued but - motoring
>experts say - drivers were never sufficiently warned they would expire after
>10 years.
>
>Motorists who fail to renew their licences in time are allowed to continue
>driving. But the DVLA says they could be charged with 'failing to surrender
>their licence', an offence carrying a £1,000 fine.
>
>AA president, Edmund King said: 'It is not generally known that photocard
>licences expire: there appears to be a lack of information that people will
>have to renew these licences.
>
>'People think they have already paid them for once over and that is it.
>
>'It will come as a surprise to motorists and a shock that they have to pay
>an extra £17.50.'
>
>The AA called on the Government to use the annual £450million from traffic
>enforcement fines to offset the renewal charge.
>
>Before photocard licences were introduced, old-style paper licences were
>valid until the age of 70.
>
>'Many motorists still believe this to be the case with the new ones."
>
>Driving instructor Tony Carter, of Canterbury, said: 'It's outrageous;
>everybody thinks their driving licence is for life.
>
>'Why - when you have already paid £50 for your photocard licence - should
>you pay the Government an extra £17.50 every 10 years?
>
>'It's another stealth tax. Drivers will be very annoyed.'
>
>Today the DVLA said the date of expiry was carried on the new-style
>licences, even though the AA says this is 'not clear'.
>
>The Agency was unable to say whether motorists were told the licences would
>expire when they were first issued.
>
>It said it was issuing postal reminders to drivers whose photograph was due
>to expire, to get the renewal message across. But a spokesman admitted this
>was the limit of the DVLA's publicity.
>
>Experts say many drivers will slip through the net because DVLA records are
>inaccurate and many motorists have changed address, making it impossible to
>trace them.
>
>A DVLA spokesman said: 'Previous experience has shown that wide-scale
>publicity is less effective and can generate enquiries and concerns from
>those not affected. Instead, DVLA focussed on targeted publicity to ensure
>that we got the message to the right person at the right time.'
>
>The Driving Standards Agency is allowing L-test candidates with out-of-date
>photocard licences to sit their driving tests as long as they provide a
>valid passport. This concession will end in January next year, raising the
>prospect that some L-test candidates will be turned away.
>
>The DVLA said no one had so far been charged with failing to surrender a
>licence.