Thousands of drivers in foreign-registered cars are not paying fines when they break the rules of the road in London.

Around 30 times more foreign-registered vehicles are now caught committing motoring offences on CCTV than in 2004, but of the 118,526 caught on camera last year, only 4,198 paid their fines. The figures also revealed that 42% of foreign-registered drivers who were traced in their home country and then sent a penalty notice paid up, compared with just 25% in the year to 31 July 2008.

Jenny Jones, London Assembly Green Party member who requested the information from the mayor, called for a change in the law to allow civil enforcement officers and police to check the legality of all cars, including those with oversees number plates. ‘It is a scandal that we have more than 100,000 known occasions last year when foreign-registered drivers broke our rules and got away with it,’ she added. ‘Why are we allowing these drivers to go in bus lanes, or to speed, or to dodge the congestion and low emission zone charges with impunity?’