The first week of Bermuda's new electronic tag windscreen system looks to have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines from law-breaking motorists.

Since July 1, 566 citations have been generated for drivers of unlicensed or unregistered four-wheeled vehicles.

Owners now face court appearances and fines starting at $750 for no registration and $1,000 for no insurance. If each of those fines is actually dished out, that would rake in a minimum $420,000.

The deadline for installing tags under the Electronic Vehicle Registration scheme was last week extended from July 1 until July 31. After that grace period, anybody without a tag can also expect a fine as their vehicle will be classed as unlicensed.

But despite that grace period the cameras have been operating since July 1, aiming to pick up illegal drivers.

Michelle Walkes, IT project consultant at the Transport Control Department, told The Royal Gazette: "Many of the people are thinking they can get away with it — but they are now getting caught out.

"The message is that they need to get their cars licensed and registered."

Terry Spencer, acting director of TCD, said: "We want to make it very clear to drivers of four-wheeled vehicles that failure to have your vehicle licensed and insured will result in a citation.

"We encourage those who have not had their vehicles tagged with a radio identification sticker to do so by the end of the month."

A total of 30,000 vehicles will be tagged under the EVR programme, as Bermuda aims to recoup an estimated $11 million lost every five years to unlicensed vehicles on the road.

Government hopes to reduce the number of unlicensed vehicles from the current seven percent to less than one percent.

Anyone convicted of removing or tampering with windshield stickers and tags will face a fine of up to $10,000.

Concerns have previously been raised that the court system will be unable to cope with the vast number of extra appearances as a result of the EVR system.