In the past nine days 63 vehicles have been clamped and officials are waiting for their owners to produce a valid tax disc and pay a release fee of �80.

About 80% of those clamped also have no insurance and 70% of the vehicles' occupants have criminal records.

Officials say that a car that is not taxed is a "key indicator that something else is going on."

John Moore, DVLA enforcement manager in the city, told BBC News that the team is also working with police using the automatic number plate recognition system.

He said: "We are looking to achieve accurate vehicle records because, nationally, there are one million vehicles (where) we do not know who the current keepers are.

"The police have made a huge number of arrests, not just in relation to the vehicles, but for drugs or violent crime for instance, so we need to target these vehicles.

"We believe there is massive public support for what we are doing and we are targeting a small number of people."