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Untaxed vehicle clamped, released, now back tax and large fine., I think this is in the right place...
David_R
post Tue, 9 Oct 2018 - 21:49
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Hi all.

I thought I had this under control, but clearly not. Quick backstory:

Car was MOTd, taxed and insured and on the road. Gearbox starts failing, so when the MOT and tax were due to expire, I stopped the insurance and took it off the road. I *thought* I had declared SORN, but clearly hadn't. Well over a year later, I decide it's time to get the vehicle fixed. Call up a friend who has a workshop, can he take a look at it? Yes. Vehicle taken by trailer to his workshop, it stays there for a few months while he's very busy, until he can have a look at it. He looks, it's going to be very expensive for him to do. I can't afford that at the moment, so he wants to bring it back to me. He does this while I'm working away, and as he can't access the off-road parking where it was before, so the car gets left on the road.

My stupid mistake for not dealing with it instantly, but it ends up left on the road for several weeks, some of which while I'm working away. It's a very quiet residential road, hence no perceived urgency to move it.

Clamping van arrives very early one morning, sees it untaxed; clamped. As a sidenote, one of my neighbours had a SORN vehicle on the road too. This was not clamped, but he did get a fine for doing so, clearly from the same enforcement agency. SORNd vehicle fine was about £160 IIRC, and that was the end of it.

£260 to get unclamped. I realise at this point that the vehicle was not on SORN, so get it SORNed immediately. And moved back off road. I can't claim the rebate on clamping if you immediately re-tax the vehicle as it is not MOTd, and won't move under it's own power due to the failed gearbox.

About 5 months later, I get notification that I will be taken to court for not paying the outstanding tax on the vehilce, some £501. (It's a £300-ish a year tax vehicle, off road for a bit under 2 years) This is the first I've heard of it. So I plead guilty on the single justice procedure notice, as the vehicle clearly was on the road and untaxed.. that is not in question. I also write a letter to the court explaining how this happened, apologising, my administrative error for not being SORN, but of course it should also not have been on the road, my fault for not moving it etc. This is the first I have heard about this, would have paid up if I had known before.

So today I get notification that I now owe not only the £501 in tax, but also a fine of some £488, and costs of £85. So that's well over a grand. To be paid within 2 weeks.

Now.. I can see how this has happened... I assume I would have been written to by the DVLA and told I needed to pay them £501 in back tax from when the vehicle was last taxed until it was spotted on the road / SORN declared, this never arrived (for whatever reason) and hence with no response from me it has been passed to the court. What I can't see is the justice in having an accidentally-untaxed vehicle parked on the road costing me over £1300 all in. This does not seem reasonable or proportional to the crime committed.

Is this reasonable? I note on the SJP notice that there is a procedure to appeal against the sentence.. Is this worthwhile, and has anyone had success in the past?

Even if I have no course of action to reduce this to something proportional to the crime in question, there is no way I can find a grand that quickly, so I am going to have to ask the court for time to pay. I filled in the means form, which showed I had about £20/month spare (which is entirely accurate), so is there any likelyhood of the court accpeting something like £50/month for this?

Suffice to say I'm feeling like somewhat of a soft target at the moment. Yes, I made errors. I should have declared the vehicle SORN, and should have checked that it was, and I should have moved the vehicle the instant I knew it was on the road, but this seems like a comparitively low-level offence and I'm being hit absurdly hard.

Any advice and guidance is *very* gratefully received.

David.
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Churchmouse
post Thu, 18 Oct 2018 - 17:56
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From: Landan
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QUOTE (ohnoes @ Thu, 18 Oct 2018 - 12:49) *
A UK vehicle can be registered abroad, as long as it is notified as exported to the DVLA and leaves the country at the necessary frequency.
In Met land, police will check VIN numbers of cars bearing foreign plates. If they are not notified exported, they will be seized for no insurance.
I live in a deprived part of london and a lot of EU expats register their UK cars abroad in places like Bulgaria because the insurance is about £150 a year, can't get any parking tickets/speeding fines and it is all above board.

Well, apart from the lack of valid insurance. If they are UK residents, they cannot legally drive a car with "non-UK insurance" in the UK.

--Churchmouse
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post Thu, 18 Oct 2018 - 17:56
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cp8759
post Sat, 20 Oct 2018 - 11:13
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QUOTE (Churchmouse @ Thu, 18 Oct 2018 - 18:56) *
QUOTE (ohnoes @ Thu, 18 Oct 2018 - 12:49) *
A UK vehicle can be registered abroad, as long as it is notified as exported to the DVLA and leaves the country at the necessary frequency.
In Met land, police will check VIN numbers of cars bearing foreign plates. If they are not notified exported, they will be seized for no insurance.
I live in a deprived part of london and a lot of EU expats register their UK cars abroad in places like Bulgaria because the insurance is about £150 a year, can't get any parking tickets/speeding fines and it is all above board.

Well, apart from the lack of valid insurance. If they are UK residents, they cannot legally drive a car with "non-UK insurance" in the UK.

--Churchmouse

If they are UK residents, they can't drive a non-UK car at all, except under very limited circumstances, and if they do they fall foul of almost every traffic law under the sun (no MOT, no insurance, driving a car not registered with DVLA, driving a car with a non-confirming front number plate, driving a car with no vehicle excise duty, driving a car with a non-confirming rear number plate, plus (depending on the home country of the car) a whole bunch of construction & use offences...)


--------------------
If you would like assistance with a penalty charge notice, please post a thread on https://www.ftla.uk/index.php
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