Tax office officials have confiscated 22 cars from people with outstanding bills after using number plate recognition systems to pick out tax dodgers, the Parool reported on Friday.

In total, 70 cars were stopped by police after their number plates were identified as belonging to people with unpaid bills or who had not paid vehicle taxes. They were ordered to drive to a car park near the Johan Cruijff football stadium where they were told to pay up or face the loss of their cars.

Officials sequestered 22 cars and generated on-the-spot payments of €55,388 for unpaid tax bills, the paper said. One person paid over €4,000 in cash.

‘We are talking about all sorts of debts, primarily income tax, sales taxes and vehicle tax,’ a spokesman said. ‘These are people who have ignored reminders and have a court order on their name.’

Officials run some 300 similar campaigns every year and last year raised €8.5m in unpaid taxes, the paper said.

The tax office was given the power to check car owners have paid road tax by scanning every car on the Dutch roads and comparing the number plate to a data base last year.

Officials make use of footage taken by speed cameras and cameras used to monitor road conditions using technology known as ANPR. There are some 800 ANPR cameras monitoring Dutch roads.