Driving around for a year with the wrong tax disc

iammumtoone

I have just put my new tax disc on my car. Whilst doing so I noticed that I had not displayed last years :eek: so I have been driving all year with an out of date disc on display.

I can't believe I wasn't stopped and no one noticed (me included). During the year I had my wing mirror damaged by some thugs who did a lot of the cars down the street so the police came out to inspect my car and talk to me about it. I also regularly park in public car parks where traffic wardens must have noticed when they checked for a car parking ticket (maybe its something they don't report)

I did pay the tax but I believe you can get fined for not displaying the disc? I must have been lucky.

GAZ237

iammumtoone wrote: »

I have just put my new tax disc on my car. Whilst doing so I noticed that I had not displayed last years :eek: so I have been driving all year with an out of date disc on display.

I can't believe I wasn't stopped and no one noticed (me included). During the year I had my wing mirror damaged by some thugs who did a lot of the cars down the street so the police came out to inspect my car and talk to me about it. I also regularly park in public car parks where traffic wardens must have noticed when they checked for a car parking ticket (maybe its something they don't report)

I did pay the tax but I believe you can get fined for not displaying the disc? I must have been lucky.

On the police ANPR system, it would of shown up as being taxed, so they would have no reason to stop you.

Lagoon

I've never looked at the tax disc on my car. In daily life I just don't even register that it's there. I imagine most other people are the same, and wouldn't 'see' it if they looked at your car.

Police included. If they're there dealing with another issue they won't even think to look at it.

Nicely avoided, though!

iammumtoone

Lagoon wrote: »

I've never looked at the tax disc on my car. In daily life I just don't even register that it's there. I imagine most other people are the same, and wouldn't 'see' it if they looked at your car.

Police included. If they're there dealing with another issue they won't even think to look at it.

Nicely avoided, though!

Never look at mine either hence why I didn't notice. However I thought the police etc were trained to look that's why they are different colours so the wrong year can easily be spotted. Years ago I had a bf who was stopped (he didn't have any tax), the police were sitting in a side road and clocked it as he drove past. I suppose with the ANPR they don't look anymore.

mad_rich

I think you were lucky.

I got done for failure to display a few years back on approx the 3rd or 4th day of the month. The correct tax disc was sitting on the kitchen table but I just hadn't got round to it. D'oh.

I must be more alert to it now, because I've noticed two mates' cars without a valid disc (same reason) and possibly saved them a fine.

More recently, I bought a wreck of a car last month and the disc was not on display because it was in the glovebox for some reason. It must have been in a bit of a state, because within an hour of parking it at my house, somebody had reported it as abandoned! Two cops knocking at my door asking if it was mine. Luckily, they didn't give me a ticket for failure to display that time...

Aretnap

iammumtoone wrote: »

I did pay the tax but I believe you can get fined for not displaying the disc? I must have been lucky.

You're correct, though it's not as serious as having no tax at all. Failure to display the disc has a maximum fine of £200, or more usually a £60 fixed penalty. No tax at all can be up to £1000 or five times the annual tax for the vehicle - whichever is greater. But yes, you were lucky. No harm done though.

londonTiger

it's the job of the parking attendants to check for this. But their focus is on hitting their targets for parking offences so dont give a rats !!!! about it. Understandable really because they have to read the cars reg and then corroborate with the reg on the tiny residents/business permits stickers to confirm it's legit. Quite a mind numbing process I imagine.

A lot of the local authority attendants are probably familair with all the local residents cars so they have all their dates memorised, so don't really scrutinise the residents permits let alone the tax disc.

InsideInsurance

GAZ237 wrote: »

On the police ANPR system, it would of shown up as being taxed, so they would have no reason to stop you.

They may not stop you to randomly check but it is still an offence not to display a valid tax disk

I did similar a few years ago with not remembering to switch the disks over. Despite being in an RTA with the police and being randomly pulled over for checks etc no one spotted or mentioned the expired disk.

Generally they rely on the DVLA and their computerised approach and often ignore the display issue.

molley

I was sitting in my living room earlier this evening and noticed a neighbour in a top floor flat across the road was looking at something in the street ..it was two cops at my car writing out a FP notice ...I couldn't think what it was and I wasn't over a dropped kerb . I went down after they went away ..they were looking at every car in the street ...it was a £60 FP for not displaying a Tax Disc ..I had put the new disc behind the old one instead of in front of it ..What a muppet.....been like that since end of April

Anyway you'd think there was no crime in Glasgow ..you never see cops on foot so these 2 must have been at a loose end .

It's about time they dumped that rule about displaying a Tax Disc ..no need for it nowadays .

londonTiger

police are just revenue collectors these days, they're not overly concerned about crime. They're more concerned with speed traps and seizing uninsured drivers.

marlot

I never used to display on my motorbike (they are too easy to steal). Never got done, though I always had the disk available if I was ever challenged.