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More than £73,000 in unpaid parking fines has been written off by Leicester City Council after tickets were issued to foreign vehicles that can’t be traced.

In total, 3,052 tickets were slapped on the windscreens of foreign cars in 2016, 2017 and so far this year.

Of that amount, 1,311 were written off in 2016 totalling £45,885.

In 2017, 797 fines were uncollected totalling £27,895 - but this amount could still increase as fines are not automatically written off until after 180 days if address details are unknown.

None of the 496 penalties issued so far this year have gone down as uncollected but the first date any would automatically be recorded as unpaid is June 29.

Leicestershire County Council wrote off almost £2,000 in fines during the same time frame.

Both councils said cases are not progressed as the keepers details are not provided by the DVLA and added that the amount is calculated at the 50 per cent early repayment rate.

A city council spokesperson said: “The DVLA does not hold or provide to councils any information on foreign-registered vehicles, so in many cases we are unable to collect parking fines.

"Unpaid fines issued to foreign vehicles where no registered address is known are written off after 180 days. There are no national or international agreements in place to share vehicle details between local authorities or other countries.

“However, foreign vehicles that remain in the UK for more than six months should by law be registered with the DVLA.”

Leicestershire County Council has said it is now reviewing the way it collects fines from foreign drivers.

More than 70 fines were written off by the authority in 2016/17 and 2017/18.

A county council spokesperson added: “While we hope that people pay the penalty, under current legislation we cannot progress these type of cases.

“However, we are reviewing whether we can pursue cases in the future by contacting owners of foreign vehicles directly where we have contact details. Fortunately this is not a huge problem in Leicestershire.”