Unlicensed Vehicle - Letter from DVLA

solojedi

Dear All,

Hope someone can help! I have received a letter see below that states that my vehilce was seen unlicensed. The vehicle has been declared off the road and has not been moved at all by myself or anyone else. I do have a letter confirming the vehicle is registered as SORN. This obviously does not help in my case as the letter states it was seen on the road some 20 miles away from where I live.

'We have received an offence report alleging that at 10:02hrs on 11/01/2011 the above vehicle was seen in XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX being used/kept whilst unlicensed. Even if the vehicle has been licensed since this date, the offence still stands. This related to a section 29 offence of using/keeping a vehicle and is sepreate to the fees paid to the Agency's wheel clamping contractors who clapmed/impounded the vehicle'

'As our latest information shows that you were the vehicles keeper on that date, we now request that you take action on either A or B below'

a) If you were the keeper on the date of alleged offence an out of court settlement of £63.00 is required to avoid court action. YOU MUST ALSO COMPLETE PART 1 and PART 4 overleaf. Please make your cheque or postal order payable to the DVLA and return with this letter in the enclosed envelope to the above address by 09/02/2009. Instalments are not accetable. If you wish to pay by card, call the above number. If we do not receive payment for this alleged offence, the Agency will take court action against you"

[this relates to me not being the keeper]

I would be grateful for any help or suggestions as to what I can do.

wealdroam

You haven't said whether you vehicle was or was not on the road at that particular time.

If it wasn't, then write to the DVLA denying the allegation.
Demand proof. They will of course be unable to supply any.

You however, do not need to provide any proof that you did not commit any offence, but it might help if you can, for example prove that the vehicle could not have possibly been there because...

rev_henry

Have your number plates been nicked recently?

Strider590

As usual, the DVLA have issued a fine and due to red tape BS they will not let this go. Any letter you receive from them, will be a generic response to whatever excuse/reason you have, your best bet is a phone call followed by a letter. But with the DVLA they don't let go, they keep coming at you with more and more BS reasons to fine you + threats of increasing the amount.

Your very likely to end up in court, where the judge will almost certainly throw the case out.

Where is the vehicle being kept and is it drivable?

solojedi

Thank you for the quick replies.

wealdroam -
The vehicle was declared SORN at the time they are saying the offence occured and was parked on my driveway.

I was thinking about writing a letter to the DVLA of the error. Their letter does not state who has reported the offence i.e police , traffic warden or if it was on camera.

I can honestly say it has not moved at all.

Do they have to supply proof of the offence as from what Strider590 is saying and from what I have read suggests you just get standard generic responses.

rev_henry -
The number plates have not been stolen but the car was advertised for sale so someone could have used them.

Has anyone come across a template for a letter that I could modify to send to the DVLA?

Thanks again

vax2002

Lots of passive text, words like request.
I would write back and ask the case to be heard at court.
You do not have to supply them any defence information until the request disclosure at the court.
A sworn affidavit and statement will soon see it thrown out.
The onus is on them to prove the offence.
Make them do it !

Wig

The letter sounds like they impounded the offending vehicle, you could phone up DVLA or the local DVLA impound yard and ask if the vehicle was impounded and if the still have it..... On a side note, you could go and claim the offending vehicle and then register it in your name and then sell it for scrap or otherwise.

If it was impounded they ALWAYS take a photo of the vehicle before lifting it so ask them for a copy of that photo.... then point out the differences between your car and the car in the photo.

Or if they refuse to comply, see them in court and show the magistrates photos of your car in the driveway and ask to see the evidence photos from DVLA and compare them in court.

On another side note, I hope it did get lifted, then the cloner got a big surprise because he stupidly cloned a SORN vehicle, had he cloned a taxed vehicle chances are he wouldn't have been stopped, but because you SORNd yours you caused him to lose his car.....that's a kind of poetic justice :rotfl:

Good luck

alanrowell

If you are not the keeper of the vehicle that was spotted on the road you follow option B.

verybigchris

How much is the car worth? Paying the fine and the impound charges sounds like a cheap way to get a second car

marlot

Almost certainly someone has mis-keyed the number.

paddedjohn

Wig wrote: »

The letter sounds like they impounded the offending vehicle, you could phone up DVLA or the local DVLA impound yard and ask if the vehicle was impounded and if the still have it..... On a side note, you could go and claim the offending vehicle and then register it in your name and then sell it for scrap or otherwise
Good luck

If the OP managed to do this then once he scrapped the offending vehicle his own car technically wouldnt exist.;)