Caught by the tax camera on the way to PO, will I be fined?

FeistyFidget

Yep, I'm an idiot. It completely slipped my mind that my tax expired yesterday. In fact it wasn't until I saw the bloody camera that I broke out in cold sweats and realized my stupidity and forgetfulness.

The tax ran out yesterday, I purchased today, but not until this afternoon AFTER I had gone past one of the tax camera screenings (car pulled up with none police personnel using camera, tax camera point signage up).

Does anyone know if you get a fine through the post for this, if so how long roughly does it take to come through and how much is it?

Technically I bought my tax today and it is backdated to the whole day, so there was no 'lapse' in car being taxed.

Does anyone know if the tax being purchased at the post office is flagged with the DVLA instantly, or is it just processed at the end of the day. I'm guessing the camera scanned my registration and realized that the tax expired yesterday, but I don't know if it is an automatic fine process, or if they wait to see the date that tax was purchased once the DVLA records are updated?

londonTiger

You pay for tax until the end of the month, it might mean that the tax you purchase is backdated to 00:00am to the 1st of the month.

who knows, wait til you get something through the post.

benham3160

I thought there was a five (or even fourteen) day grace period now.

I think I'd be contesting it if anything happened to me.

marlot

benham3160 wrote: »

I thought there was a five (or even fourteen) day grace period now.

I think I'd be contesting it if anything happened to me.

The official grace period only applies if you buy the new tax disk online before the old one expires (ie. before midnight on the last day).

But ... I'd be surprised if DVLA is 'real time' enough to connect the dots, so OP is probably fine.

DUTR

benham3160 wrote: »

I thought there was a five (or even fourteen) day grace period now.

I think I'd be contesting it if anything happened to me.

Nope, get that rumour out of your head, I suppose you can count the reminder as grace period. When I have taxed online the disc has arrived within two postal mornings.

Roland_Sausage

A similar thing happened to me, except I was actually caught by a real life police officer who then read me my rights, charged me and made me produce my documents at the station.

The chap there just laughed and said not to worry about it. Never heard anything further.

So if it is too trivial for the police to pursue, I suspect it will be too trivial for the DVLA too. Or perhaps not, who knows how they work...

Sally22_2

You can renew your disc from the 5th of the month of it running out. For example if it runs out the last day of June you can renew it from the 5th June. So you already have 3 weeks to buy it, why should they give you another week/two weeks grace period on top?

Post office systems are linked to the DVLA systems so I would imagine that they would know instantly but worse case would be when the PO information gets polled overnight. So not sure if you will get fined, even if you get a letter come through, you could try to appeal.

I have never even seen these types of cameras before!!

Norman_Castle

As all cars need to be taxed or sorn(ed?) they already knew your car was untaxed. As the tax you've paid covers you from the start of the month its very unlikely you will get a overdue fine.
I suspect the cameras are more interested in vehicles being used which have been declared off road.

dacouch

I think the only people the DVLA cameras catch without tax are the ones on their way to the post office to buy their tax

Rover_Driver

benham3160 wrote: »

I thought there was a five (or even fourteen) day grace period now.

The 14 day grace period is for the offence of failing to display the licence, as long as it is applied for before the expiry of the old one.

FeistyFidget

As the tax disc is backdated from 00:01 I was never technically without tax, so I am tempted to contest if anything were to come of it. However my argument will not be valid if they say you were caught on camera at 12.05pm, but our records show that you did not purchase your tax disc until 1.05pm - are they that accurate?