Car Tax - Court Summons

alborg

Marktheshark wrote: »

This hearing will qualify for full court costs against you if its seen you failed to make a required declaration of change of keeper , so expect up to £490 in costs if they uphold the fine if its adjourned .
£200 + £200 + the £90 + plus the fine.
The mags can not tag on the keeper document offence as you have to be reported for an offence at magistrates, they can only rule for court costs as a self contributing factor.

However DVLA have to turn up, often they dont.

Sorry Mark i don't fully understand what you mean. I think my existing judgement already has full costs against me because I didn't turn up because I didn't know I had a court summons. Are you saying they would rule against me for a second time but add on to my original court costs? Would you suggest attending court and pleading guilty and mention that I thought I'd paid all of my fines back in Feb including the backdated payment and not use my address as a mitigating factor. Or just plead guilty by post and pay the full amount and count myself lucky on my failure to update my address. I will get my address sorted with DVLA this week either way but I'm annoyed that when I spoke to DVLA originally to clear my fines they said all was clear, next thing I know I get an enforcement notice through the door.

Also you think it might be worth turning up and hope DVLA aren't there. If I plead guilty and they aren't there would it still get thrown out or would I have to plead not guilty?

Joe_Horner

Marktheshark wrote: »

The mags can not tag on the keeper document offence as you have to be reported for an offence at magistrates, they can only rule for court costs as a self contributing factor.

However DVLA have to turn up, often they dont.

No, the magistrates can't add the extra offence but they can include the failure as an aggravating factor in their consideration of the penalty and could, if they wished, impose a higher penalty "second time round".

They're entitled to decide that the extra information available shows greater culpability than the previous hearing assumed, or even suggests a deliberate attempt to dodge motoring offences. Many people they see have out of date details at DVLA for exactly that reason!

DVLA could also have a summons issued for the failure to notify as a separate offence if the OP brings it to their attention.

dannyrst

Probably should have changed the address whilst you were on the phone to DVLA to pay the fines.

Ask DVLA for a copy of the recording of the conversation where they said no further fines will be payable? I'm not legally minded so no idea if that would stand up in court?

BeenThroughItAll

Sounds to me like you should pay up the fine you rightly owe, then buy a calendar, and in future take a bit more care over your personal admin.