No vehicle tax

Guest101

Tilt wrote: »

Sorry, you've lost me. The police can be requested to 'assist' in removing a vehicle by the DVLA. Outside of that and unlike insurance, it isn't a police matter.

Actually the police will be informed of the action taken, and may choose to attend, to prevent a breach of the peace.

They wot be actively involved at all

Tilt

Guest101 wrote: »

Actually the police will be informed of the action taken, and may choose to attend, to prevent a breach of the peace.

They wot be actively involved at all

That's exactly what I meant.

Roland_Sausage

I was once charged by the police for not having a valid tax disc (it was 6 days into the month and I had been out the country, and planned to renew it that day anyway). They even did the whole "you have the right to remain silent" speech.

I was asked to hand in my documents, which I did and never heard anything further about it, so assume they decided to drop the charges. But it does mean it is false to say that the police will not get involved.

Guest101

Roland_Sausage wrote: »

I was once charged by the police for not having a valid tax disc (it was 6 days into the month and I had been out the country, and planned to renew it that day anyway). They even did the whole "you have the right to remain silent" speech.

I was asked to hand in my documents, which I did and never heard anything further about it, so assume they decided to drop the charges. But it does mean it is false to say that the police will not get involved.

That's said because they wanted to gather and use evidence to prosecute you. It's called being under caution.

What do you mean 'hand in' docs?

The police will only carry out the procedure, as you have described, if you were caught driving the vehicle.

Rover_Driver

Roland_Sausage wrote: »

I was once charged by the police for not having a valid tax disc

Was it failing to display a licence? which police do deal with - and pass the details to DVLA who may then prosecute if there is no licence in force.

Roland_Sausage

Guest101 wrote: »

That's said because they wanted to gather and use evidence to prosecute you. It's called being under caution.

What do you mean 'hand in' docs?

The police will only carry out the procedure, as you have described, if you were caught driving the vehicle.

They asked me to produce my driving licence, proof of insurance and MOT at my nearest police station. The guy at the desk just laughed in disbelief and said nothing further would probably happen (and he was right).

As it happens, they didn't actually catch me driving it. They saw a car similar to mine driving the wrong way up a one way street but as they were occupied with other stuff they didn't get the registration number.

So they drove around until they found my car which was parked at the time. I denied having being in the one way street, my sister backed me up on this and they then said they had no proof it was me so would let it go. And then they spotted the tax disc...

Roland_Sausage

Rover_Driver wrote: »

Was it failing to display a licence? which police do deal with - and pass the details to DVLA who may then prosecute if there is no licence in force.

Yes it was that. Which proves that what an earlier poster saying about the police not being interested unless requested by the DVLA is uncorrect.

Robin-i'-the-Hood

Thank you for all who responded with facts/opinion firmly grounded in facts. I asked this question as it seemed that such issues are/can be stamped on fairly hard if you don't co-operate, while the official attitude towards non-paying absentee parents is rather more lenient. (What I meant about issue not being about motoring only)
To those who just wanted to know why I asked but not help...why ask why (as it were)???...if you don't want to help, or give reasoned opinion, just move along....

fivetide

Guest101 wrote: »

Actually the police will be informed of the action taken, and may choose to attend, to prevent a breach of the peace.

They wot be actively involved at all

My mate used to do that as a living. Worked for Vinci who had the DVLA contract at the time.

They would go into several areas with police back up just in case the owners got grumpy (the type of person who drives without tax isn't usually high up the social order).

It did work the other way too though. He went on several jobs with the police (prior to the police being able to seize uninsured cars) because the DVLA could lift untaxed cars and the police could only slap a ticket on it/send a fine.

They used to take cars off drug dealers as the motors would be used in lieu of cash and never registered to anyone to prevent people asking questions about the bloke in number 37, apparently jobless having a M3 parked in the road.

Tilt

Roland_Sausage wrote: »

Yes it was that. Which proves that what an earlier poster saying about the police not being interested unless requested by the DVLA is uncorrect.

Look, the police do not prosecute for having no tax. They can however REPORT you for not displaying a valid tax disc. It is the DVLA that issue penalties for no tax.

Try ringing the police to report someone without tax and see what they say.

I find it extremely surprising that the police would take action against someone who's tax was only 6 days out of date by itself.