Driving with an expired registration: 48,950 fines in Dubai this year

Dubai Police issued 48,950 fines in the first ten months of this year to drivers whose vehicle registration had run out, Brigadier Juma Salem bin Suwaidan, director of the force's General Department of Traffic, said, as reported by Gulf News on Sunday.

The penalty for driving a vehicle with an expired registration is a Dh500 fine, four traffic points on the driver's licence and seven days' impoundment of the vehicle. The impoundment is the part many drivers do not expect: on top of the fine, the car is off the road for a week.

January was the busiest month, with 6,977 fines, followed by February with 6,768 and March with 6,573. The numbers then fell, to 2,601 in April and 984 in May, before rising again to 4,965 in June and 6,404 in July. From August they eased month by month, from 4,859 in August to 4,763 in September and 4,056 in October.

Brigadier bin Suwaidan said registration is tied to the vehicle's periodic technical inspection, which checks tyres, brakes, lights and steering, and that leaving faults unrepaired can lead to breakdowns and crashes. He also warned that a driver whose insurance has lapsed faces further financial and legal consequences after an accident, since registration and insurance usually run out together.

Check the expiry date on your vehicle's registration card or in the RTA or Dubai Police apps, and renew before it runs out rather than after. Renewal usually needs valid insurance and, depending on the vehicle's age, a passed technical inspection, so book the test a few days ahead. Police advise drivers to keep track of both the registration and insurance dates, to settle any traffic fines rather than let them build up, and to use the authorities' smart services to check and pay fines and complete renewals. If your car is already out of date, do not drive it to the test centre and back for errands in between: every trip on the road risks the fine, the points and the week without the car.