Illegal car lots in Hull have been the subject of nearly 50 complaints this year and a crackdown against them is set to continue.

Busy city roads such as Princes Avenue have been clogged up by clusters of cars being advertised for sale on the streets. The city council has been battling the problem for five years.

Some 46 complaints have been probed since January, resulting in 12 vehicles being issued with fixed penalty notices. 'Guidance and advice' has been issued to five sellers.

But tackling the problem is not straightforward because sellers are not always the registered keeper and some vehicles are unregistered.

A report on the issue said: "Enforcement of this legislation at known hot spots in the city has proved to be problematic.

"Other problems experienced include cars displaying a mobile telephone number (where the telephones) are found to be pre-paid and (it is) impossible to trace the user, and the difficulty in proving the person selling vehicles is doing so in the course of a business."

Monitoring of the problem and enforcement will continue, the report said.

Copyright Press Association 2012