CHEATS, swindlers, dodgers. Call them what you like, motorists who drive without road tax are taking a free ride at the expense of the law-abiding.

The DVLA estimates that 28,000 people in North Yorkshire are evading vehicle excise duty. That is an astonishing number.

Nationally the dodgers cost the Treasury 4.5 per cent of road tax revenue, which adds up to hundreds of millions of pounds.

This is infuriating for most motorists who dutifully pay up. Road tax does not come cheap; many families have to scrimp and save to meet the six monthly or yearly demand.

It comes on top of the other expenses of motoring: the MOT, insurance, high petrol prices and, in York, the spectre of increased parking charges.

So we welcome the joint DVLA and police crackdown on road tax evaders in North and East Yorkshire. It is long overdue.

New technology looks set to home in on the cheats where old techniques have failed. The theatrically-named Stingray device can read number plates and cross refer them to the DVLA's database to check the vehicle is taxed.

The system has been effective enough to bring in hundreds of thousands of pounds in renewed road tax elsewhere in the country.

Stingray is certain to identify countless other motoring offences. One in three road tax dodgers breaches other motoring laws, such as driving without insurance or an MOT certificate.

The tax disc may be on its way out: the Government has a mind to scrap it in favour of road pricing. But while it remains, the authorities should do all they can to make the dodgers pay.

Updated: 11:54 Tuesday, March 02, 2004