I got a £60 road tax penalty - can I contest this?

CrashJPMorgan

Hi all,

My road tax expired 31/12/12 and I got a £60 penalty on 10/1/13.

I actually bought and paid for my new road tax prior to expiry but forgot to display it. I have the receipts etc.

Can I contest the penalty? If so, how do I go about it?


Thanks in advance.

custardy

you mean the penalty for failure to display?
if so,what would be your argument?

CrashJPMorgan

I think it is the penalty for failure to display.

My only argument could be is I forgot to display it after buying it. I was busy at the time then I went on holiday so forgot about it. Came back, used my car a few days, then saw the penalty on my window, and then remembered I forgot to display it.

custardy

CrashJPMorgan wrote: »

I think it is the penalty for failure to display.

My only argument could be is I forgot to display it after buying it. I was busy at the time then I went on holiday so forgot about it. Came back, used my car a few days, then saw the penalty on my window, and then remembered I forgot to display it.

well the offence is failure to display
so i dont see what you see as a reason to not have been fined?

Buzby

It's a slam dunk (sadly). I've seen police happy to ignore this following an affirmative PNC check and not take it further. You'll just have to grin and pay up until they repeal the rather outdated requirement to display a needless bit of paper!

custardy

Buzby wrote: »

It's a slam dunk (sadly). I've seen police happy to ignore this following an affirmative PNC check and not take it further. You'll just have to grin and pay up until they repeal the rather outdated requirement to display a needless bit of paper!

agree on that
we dont need to put an MOT in the window,so i dont see why we need a tax disc with todays tech

Joe_Horner

How did you buy the new tax? If you did it online then surely the disk was late thanks to Christmas / New year post?

jb66

It fell off the window?

StrongWork

CrashJPMorgan wrote: »

I think it is the penalty for failure to display.

My only argument could be is I forgot to display it after buying it. I was busy at the time then I went on holiday so forgot about it. Came back, used my car a few days, then saw the penalty on my window, and then remembered I forgot to display it.

I probably wouldn't use that as an 'argument'.

Unfortunately, as above it's a failure to display. I'd pay up.

Rolandtheroadie

Mines has been on the board in the kitchen since the end of November, think I'll go and put it in the car.

Aretnap

Unfortunately it's a strict liability offence, so the fact that you didn't intend not to display it (ie you forgot) isn't a defence.

If you renewed the tax disc online or by post you have a five working day grace period before you have to display it - but you were just outside of that.

Don't go claiming that it got delayed in the post or fell off the windscreen if it didn't. Lying to a court is a serious crime and risking a spell in prison for the sake of a £60 fixed penalty would be rather silly.

Even if you had a viable defence, challenging this would mean spending a day in court, and if you lost you'd end up paying a lot more than £60 in fines and costs. So all in all your best option is probably to pay up and put it down to experience.

Agree that the tax disc is an anachronism now that a car's tax status can be checked electronically in seconds, but we seem to be stuck with it until the DfT notice and find the time to repeal it.