Shafted by the DVLA (Legal eagle help needed)

[mwmackenzie]

Hi folks,

I received a fine of £60 from a traffic warden on my street on the 1st of May.

What happened was I have a Golf and an A4, the A4 was on sorn for a couple of months but I decided to start using it again on the 1st of May as my Golf was needing a bit of work.

I went to start the A4 but the battery was completely flat. As the golf was going off the road for some minor repairs I drove the Golf to the A4 which was parked up off the road, took the battery out of the Golf and put it in the A4, I then drove the A4 round the corner to my house where I went inside to tax the car on-line.

When I came out there was a £60 fine on my car for not displaying tax with a time of 08.41 on it, I kicked myself for getting this as the car was taxed when I was in the house. The car was taxed at 08.59 after I hunted out all my documents and I went out to find the ticket at 9.01.

Gutted about the £60 fine and paid it.

I then get a letter from the DVLA dated 20th May asking for a £200 out of court settlement for this offence stating it was nothing to do with any other fines etc. If I don't pay I'll be going to court and face a £2500 penalty or 5 times the annual rate of tax for the car + £90 for their trouble.

I have called the number on the letter to discuss but they won't talk to me, only take payment, convenient! I have to write to them to appeal.

The vehicle was taxed while I was in the house so within 20 mins of the offence and have paid the £60 police fine so what grounds do these folk have to issue me with this further penalty of £200?

Has anyone else been hit with this and have you managed to avoid paying it? (prob not on here as you'll all be a lot more on the ball than me )

I think it is absurd that having paid the £60 fine for the offence, which hands up my car was on the public road unlicensed for 18 minutes while I was actually Taxing it on-line as their records show. Surely as I paid the tax on the 1st for that month and a £60 fine they cannot hit me with this £200 penalty as I have paid for the tax for that full month and 5 more or can they?

Stated in the letter are Section 29 (3A) Section 46 and section 6 of the vehicle excise and registration act.. I know nothing about these so am looking for any advice at all that you guys/gals can offer....

Cheers
Mark

[BiggestNizzy]

I would phone the DVLA, don't use the number on the letter.

[Doc883]

That seems mightily harsh and worth contesting imo. By comparison you watch these Police Camera programs and see drivers getting a £200 fine for having no tax, insurance and mot ffs !!

[steviej]

Harsh, but most likely because it was on sorn they have no way of telling how long it had been 'used on the road' whilst sorned so are hitting you with the fine and scaremongering with the possibility of worse if you dont pay. No help, but do feel your pain, hope you get it sorted out.

[Dark]

If it went to court, the DVLA would argue that you received the fine & immediately went online to buy your tax disc. Your timings already support this.

At the end of the day the vehicle was parked on the road without a valid tax disc. It could have been there minutes, hours, day or even months; the DVLA don't care and you can't prove otherwise.

In some respects you're lucky the traffic warden didn't call to have the car removed, you'd be looking at much more than £200 to get it returned. I'd pay the fine and put it down to experience / bad luck.

In hindsight you should have applied for the tax disc before going to collect the car. Sorry.......

[sendmyusername]

Yeah, the £60 will be for having it on the road at all, the £200 is because they will assume you have used it from the sorn.
It's possibly the actual backtax since you sorned it ?
Even if you had some proof it hadn't been used, it would be very hard to prove that you had never used it at all.
It will look like you've got the ticket then taxed it.
I got done for not displaying my road tax on my bike (it was attached on the rear chain guard where 90% of bikes have it) eventhough I was able to show where it was, the absolute rules state it should be clearly visible in the first third of the bike, and as mine was parked against the wall the guy wouldn't have seen it unless he looked for it.
Got a £60 fine, they weren't interested in reason.

[j2 lot]

The fine, as others have said, will be for 'back tax'.

We believe your account of what happened, but DVLA have probably heard the same tale time and time again from people who have been using their car and pay up when they get caught, you have no way of proving you werent using it regularly so its unlikely that an appeal will be worth while.

Harsh as it sounds I think you have little choice and will need to pay the fine.

DVLA really do see things in black and white, there are no grey areas, I got caught with a sold car that was still registered as mine pending the change over of personal registration number. Fined as not taxed or declared SORN and in my eyes not my responsibility but they fined me as the keeper. Despite having paperwork that backed up my story there was no leeway at all

[tut]

Ian's tax disk blew off on his bike today, so not a very good job done by Shirlaws.

tut

[Corranga]

It's the back tax to when you declared SORN, no wa\y around it.

I had similar with a bike, 60 quid fine plus £15 tax (which is a year for a 125cc...) as they claimed I didn't declare SORN. I did it over the phone and received no SORN letter - so when SORNing, make sure you ALWAYS get a letter!
I do it online now, and make sure I save the email and get a letter (which you still need as proof...).

Not sure I'd go chasing it tbh, as your story indicates that you absolutely did use a SORN car on the road to get it from the off road location to your house where the fine was handed out. That admission is probably worth more fines and possibly even points, rather than the DVLA just assuming you've kept it on the road, charging you 60 quid, plus the tax you should have paid to store it in the road..

Chris

[mwmackenzie]

The car was only on sorn since Feb so not back tax! I can't drive or use 3 cars so it definitely was not on the road or in use prior to 8.35 that morning. The Audi went on the road when the Golf went off. so still only 2 on the road although I'm paying tax on 3 lol. Also if the car was on the road prior, the traffic warden who we have now observed on our street most mornings as there is a school and parking restrictions at the bottom of our street would have ticketed it daily before then?

[j2 lot]

I sympathise Mark, but doubt DVLA will.

[mwmackenzie]

It was just plain laziness on my part not walking from the car to the house and back after taxing it so I guess that was an expensive mistake at £260, lesson learnt albeit a nasty one

[rossybee]

You could have hired an elise for similar money to take you round the corner!