£1813 DVLA Fine for No Tax

nastyslug

Hi anyone that can advise!

In June 2016 I got clamped for having no road tax. I realised I hadn't renewed it since moving address, so I paid the Road Tax & Clamping Fine immediately. I did update my License with the DVLA when I moved but forgot to update the vehicle V5C and thus did not receive a reminder letter from DVLA. The period I was unknowingly driving around without tax for was almost a year. (around June 2015 to 10 June 2016)

I got captured on camera 5 times on these dates:

£262 for offence on 03/01/16
£329 for offence on 05/03/16
£296 for offence on 03/04/16
£396 for offence on 02/05/16
£430 for offence on 10/06/16 (Day I got clamped)
£100 for Clamping

---

£1813 Total

DVLA filed two of the fines with the court and (in my absence) I was sentenced by the court on both occasions. I never knew any of this was happening as all the dvla/court/bailiff documents were allegedly going to my old address. The first I knew of these fines was when the court sent bailiffs to my flat to take possession of my car. I explained to them that I got clamped but knew nothing of the court cases. I paid the bailiff to avoid having my car removed. I then filed "Statutory Declarations" and the court voided the first case & relisted the 2nd case.

After that I phoned the DVLA in an attempt to pay them a settlement. (This is when the operator told me I have 5 fines to pay, and would I be paying £1713!!?!) I told him I would pay the original fine £262 but I can't afford to pay the rest.

I also sent the DVLA an appeal letter but they have not responded to my questions and given me a final chance to pay the out of court settlement fine.

Before you say "ignorance is not an excuse" I just want to say that I simply forgot to update my V5C when I moved. As I updated my license I guess I just thought to cross DVLA off the list of notifications and moved on to let me bank, work etc know. So when I didn't receive a reminder to pay tax it all spiralled out of control. It's not deliberate tax avoidance.


My question is if I go to court I'm sure the DVLA will raise 4 remaining cases but will the court see this as one offence as it was impossible for me to pay 5 fines I didn't know about, or will they side with DVLA? Basically have I been given the opportunity to correct my mistake or do I have to plead guilty to 5 separate fines separately?

Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 Section 29 states:

In the case of a conviction for a continuing offence, the offence is to be taken for the purposes of subsections (6) and (7) to have been committed on the date or latest date to which the conviction relates.

I'm not sure what this means if DVLA raise 4 different court cases which I predict they will??

Thanks for reading,
Mark





Other notes:

*The bailiffs did not issue me a warning letter at my current address. They approached me at my new address on the "enforcement stage" which is wrong
*The tenants at my old address binned most of my mail but afterwards I did recover some documents sent by the court & one from the bailiff but absolutely nothing from the DVLA.

SailorSam

Now that we don't have tax discs in the window to remind us, i bet more and more people will forget it.
My tax; Mot, and insurance are all due together and once i start getting emails from all the insurance companies wanting me to switch, i know they're due.

consumers_revenge

Not being funny but 12 months and you didn't think.....I've not paid any road tax lately??

A month or 2 could have happened but that's why your stuffed.

Get a direct debit going, a lot easier, you never forget and you wont get hit with a huge bill ( or fine! ) every 12 months.

AdrianC

There are several elements to the penalties.

There's back tax - obviously, you will only need to pay this once.
There's clamping fee - obviously, you will need to pay this each time your car is clamped.
There's a fine for having the vehicle on the road untaxed - again, this is on each occasion the car has been photographed, although they should be calculated with the entire circumstances taken into account.

You cannot legitimately complain about communications with the registered keeper going to an address you no longer receive post from - because there is a legal requirement (maximum of £1,000 fine) to ensure that your address is kept current. Did you not think "I've received my new licence back, with the new address, but no V5C. I wonder why?"

Rover_Driver

nastyslug wrote: »

Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 Section 29 states:

In the case of a conviction for a continuing offence, the offence is to be taken for the purposes of subsections (6) and (7) to have been committed on the date or latest date to which the conviction relates.

I'm not sure what this means if DVLA raise 4 different court cases which I predict they will?
.

Subsection (8) only applies to subsections (6) & (7) offences, not the subsection (1) offence.

takman

That is why it's always important to setup mail redirection for at least a year so you have a chance to correct any addresses that you miss out.

But if you are that forgetful that you didn't realise that you hadn't paid any vehicle tax for an entire year then you really need to be setting up reminders!. Use a reminder on your phone or a physical calendar if you prefer to write down all the important things you need to remember throughout the year.

agrinnall

Sell the car, use the money to pay the fines, and then you won't have a car so don't need to worry about VED in future.

nastyslug

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Not being funny but 12 months and you didn't think.....I've not paid any road tax lately??

No, I pay yearly so I'm not constantly checking every month. Of course now I've set alerts & notes, but if my flat got flooded all I can rely on is a reminder letter.

That is why it's always important to setup mail redirection for at least a year so you have a chance to correct any addresses that you miss out.

I didn't setup mail direction because I'd moved within my same block of flats. Hell, my car is still sitting in the same car park at the back!! I was picking up my mail from the old flat for the first few months but as it died down I stopped going. The tenants told me that they forgot my surname and just binned my mail.

There are several elements to the penalties.

There's back tax - obviously, you will only need to pay this once.
There's clamping fee - obviously, you will need to pay this each time your car is clamped.
There's a fine for having the vehicle on the road untaxed - again, this is on each occasion the car has been photographed, although they should be calculated with the entire circumstances taken into account.

You cannot legitimately complain about communications with the registered keeper going to an address you no longer receive post from - because there is a legal requirement (maximum of £1,000 fine) to ensure that your address is kept current. Did you not think "I've received my new licence back, with the new address, but no V5C. I wonder why?"

This all together is greater than a £1000 fine. I'm not complain about communication (although the bailiffs found me quite easily) but they now know I wasn't receiving any of there communications, with all the fines building up there has to be a limit? If I didn't get clamped how far would this go? What's stopping them taking a photo of my car every day for 10 months? That's more than £70000

That's why I want to find out where the law stands on this? As you say, calculating/considering the entire circumstance.

Rover_Driver

Unfortunately here is no limit, each time you used your car unlicensed it was a seperate offence, but only detected as in your original post.

ossie

As you have internet access set up an online reminder for the future.
Memo To Me - Free Reminder Service
www.memotome.com/

neilmcl

ossie wrote: »

As you have internet access set up an online reminder for the future.
Memo To Me - Free Reminder Service
www.memotome.com/

Or simply put a reminder into your phone's calendar.