CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The state is going after 3,700 E-ZPass scofflaws, including about 300 who it says have run tolls daily for a year.

The targeted drivers are those who did not respond to “last chance” letters from the Department of Transportation urging them to settle their accounts or risk losing their licenses and registrations. They were among 23,000 people who got letters in the spring about potential E-ZPass violations.

“A lot of people did pay. The 3,700 is what we are down to. The real chronic types are really just a few hundred,” said Bill Boynton, spokesman for the department.

The department sent information on the scofflaws to the Division of Motor Vehicles on Monday, meaning anyone who wants to settle an account now must deal with the division. Boynton said the department did not go after scofflaws earlier because glitches were being worked out in the electronic toll system.

A temporary walk-in center for those who received letters will operate at the DMV building weekdays from 8:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Boynton said.

E-ZPass, installed last summer, now brings in more than half of the state’s $82 million in annual toll revenue. The E-ZPass system is also used on the Maine Turnpike and in other states in the Northeast.

Transportation Commissioner Charles O’Leary raised the issue of the 300 hard-core offenders last month.

“They have run the tolls illegally every day for a year,” he said. “There’s a pattern, and they are very brazen.”

The DMV is part of the Department of Safety, which includes the state police.

“I’ll provide the commissioner of safety with the time, locations and dates from every one of them,” O’Leary said last month. “State police can take that information and then do what they are so good at.”

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