Car tax clamp - grounds for appeal...

Nipperooney

Hello

My road tax ran out end of july. I booked my car in for test before end of month, it failed. Took it to garage for repairs, picked it up yesterday and booked it in for retest. I drove the car straight from the repair garage to the test garage, left with them and got a lift back home. I couldnt get down to pick it up before the garage closed so I arranged to go down later and collect it off the forecourt. I went down around 7.00pm.

While driving it back home to park on my drive i was intercepted by a dvla camera van and stopped by them a few hundred yards from my house. I explained i was returning from having the car tested , and produced the mot cert showing the time and date. I was told that it was invalid as it was more than an hour after the car was tested. He said he was going to have to clamp it, and said i could either have it clamped where it was or drive it back home, where he would follow me and clamp it when i arrived. I protested and said that i wasnt going to let him clamp it and would park on my drive so he couldnt. He replied that the offence of me driving the vehicle was caught in camera and if i did put it on my drive he would call the police and i would face a fine for also driving with no insurance (as he told me no tax automatically means no insurance - even though it was fully insured at the time). So i parked outside my house, he followed me down in the van and duly clamped it!

Having done some reading i think i was stupid parking it on the road and should have called his bluff with regards to the police. However, Do i have grounds for appeal and how should i go about it?

Thanks

paddedjohn

Your insurance is not invalidated by not having tax, fact.
I would appeal any fine for no tax due to the fact you are allowed to travel directly to and from a prearranged mot test without tax. Whether you get anywere fast with the deaf dvla is another story, but dont give up.

fivetide

This will be a contractor I think? He was wrong on several levels. Fight it all the way. There should be numbers on the paper he has given you.

Used to be a company called Vinci.

5t.

Hammyman

As someone who is one of the first to call for the hanging of tax dodgers, I agree with fivetide. He was wrong from start to finish.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

DVLA camera vans are not allowed to pull you that why i thought the police did check area's with them.

sound like he scare mongered you into being clamped.

write a letter of complaint, and go get it taxed.

patman99

Depends where you are. Several Police Authorities (including Essex) have granted VOSA/DVLA to stop and examine vehicles without Police assistance.

forgotmyname

Should have parked it on your drive then removed the wheelnuts. If he fitted the clamp you could have just removed
the clamp and wheel without damage.


Time limit from having car tested or repaired and picking it up? Never heard of that one.

spiro

Here (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/UntaxedVehicle/DG_4022072) are the costs associated with being clamped.

In terms of driving to/from MOT all it says is:

You can drive your vehicle to and from a pre-arranged test at an MOT test station as long as you have adequate insurance cover in place for the use of that vehicle.

In my opinion the DVLA may well deem driving a car at 7pm (couple of hours after test station has closed) is not classified as 'from a pre-arranged test'. Imagine you booked the test at 9am and then got stopped at 7pm, for all they know you have been driving the car all day. What the courts would think I dont know but what I do know is that you are going to have to pay the get the car unclamped and that will go up by the day.

zappahey

spiro wrote: »

In my opinion the DVLA may well deem driving a car at 7pm (couple of hours after test station has closed) is not classified as 'from a pre-arranged test'. Imagine you booked the test at 9am and then got stopped at 7pm, for all they know you have been driving the car all day.

Are you trying to say that one shouldn't book a test at 9am and then, say, go to work with the intent of picking up the car at the end of the day?

I would suggest that the OP's pre-arrangement included picking the car up late and the MOT station will be able to vouch for that.

It also sounds like the clamper has gone well beyond the boundaries of ethical behaviour.

shaun_from_Africa

Two words that rarely go well together in the same sentence.

It also sounds like the clamper has gone well beyond the boundaries of ethical behaviour.

paddedjohn

spiro wrote: »

Here (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/UntaxedVehicle/DG_4022072) are the costs associated with being clamped.

In terms of driving to/from MOT all it says is:

You can drive your vehicle to and from a pre-arranged test at an MOT test station as long as you have adequate insurance cover in place for the use of that vehicle.

In my opinion the DVLA may well deem driving a car at 7pm (couple of hours after test station has closed) is not classified as 'from a pre-arranged test'. Imagine you booked the test at 9am and then got stopped at 7pm, for all they know you have been driving the car all day. What the courts would think I dont know but what I do know is that you are going to have to pay the get the car unclamped and that will go up by the day.

How do you know that the garage was closed?