A DRIVER was clamped in a crackdown on car-tax dodgers - despite having a valid disc displayed in his windscreen.

Sid Lightbown, 38, still had more than a month left on his road tax when his Vauxhall Astra was clamped outside his home in Buncer Lane, Blackburn.

Teams from the DVLA were working in Blackburn at the time targeting people without valid car tax but blamed the mix-up on a computer error.

But Mr Lightbown said he was mystified when he was mistakenly clamped just before he was about to pick his son up from school.

He said: "I just can't understand what happened. It is clear that there is a valid tax disc in the windscreen.

"The tax disc is plain for all to see. I am amazed that anyone would look at the car and think there was a problem.

"I was supposed to go and get my eight-year-old son Paul from school but I had to phone my mother-in-law to pick him up because I couldn't get there.

"Being clamped like this is embarrassing and very inconvenient."

Mr Lightbown, who does not work, was facing an immediate £80 fine after being clamped at 2pm on Thursday. But staff at the DVLA have now cancelled the fine and removed the clamp after admitting that they made an error. But Mr Lightbown was left unable to use his car for four hours while the mistake was rectified.

A spokesman for the DVLA said that there had been a "computer error" which had led clampers to believe that the tax had run out for the vehicle.

Mr Lightbown said: "It is obvious that I had valid car tax and it is not my fault that they made a mistake.

"The whole situation was pathetic. I've paid up and I still got stung.

He said he bought the car from a garage in Lower Darwen in April last year for £3,500 and taxed the vehicle himself, going to the DVLA office itself in Preston.

The vehicle's registration number is printed on the tax disc and the date that it runs out is clearly shown as the end of March.