Police stop banned, uninsured driver at 99mph on M40 with unrestrained child in car

The incident was one recorded last night (Monday/Tuesday) and attended by Thames Valley Police’s Roads Policing unit.

Officers posted on X (formerly Twitter): “A shift Oxfordshire night turn have stopped a vehicle after speeding at 99mph on the M40.

“Officers located an unrestrained child, the driver had no insurance, they were disqualified from driving and the vehicle was part of #OpJessica having been in the UK for over six months.”

Operation Jessica is a police exercise aimed at clamping down on foreign cars that are being driven illegally on UK roads.

A blog by WeBuyCarsForMore said: “It’s estimated up to 15,000 foreign drivers in Britain are driving illegally, without having their vehicles registered, taxed or with a valid MOT. Foreign drivers in the UK are given six months to register their cars with the DVLA, but in the last year nobody has been prosecuted for not doing so.

“This is because the DVLA has previously had no access to records of foreign cars entering the country and have therefore been unable to tell if any cars have been in the UK longer than six months.

“If foreign drivers stay in the UK for longer than six months, they are supposed to register their vehicle with the DVLA. However, there is currently no law in place to enforce this. And it’s impossible to check whether foreign drivers have paid their tax without any vehicle records."

Since 2013, foreign drivers in the UK have avoided 23,295 speeding offences - equivalent to £2.3m in fines which haven’t been paid.