NEED SOME LEGAL ADVICE< SERIOUS

Now I promise this ain't one of my jokes or wind ups, and may be a warning for others, long story, stick with it.

About 3 weeks ago a DVLA van pulled up in my street, before I new it they were out and clamped my car, I was bouncing and my missus was screaming coz she thought I'd be jailed, we'll leave it at that.

Anyway it transpires that when I moved house and even after notifying the DVLA of my change of address whilst my licence was updated my car log book wasn't, so all reminders etc were being sent to my old address and not passed on to me.

So my car tax had run out, and whilst the onus was on me to check, I will admit checking my windscreen to read my tax disc isn't something I do as second nature, but I do react to the written reminders as we all have to.

So getting to the point, £260 for my car clamped, went straight to the post offie updated my tax and had car un-clamped.

Now 3 weeks late I get 3 separate summons from DVLA in Bournemouth, one saying I have to pay £108 coz my car was reported for being outside my house with no tax, another for ^9 because on the second of Feb it was seen in Merthyr with no tax and another for £69 coz it was seen in taffs Well on the 23rd feb with no tax.

So basically to date I would have had 4 summons for the one offence of having no tax, now If I pay these there could be another six or seven in next weeks posts.

Mad, if you drive with no insurance and get caught, you get a fine of say £200, you don't then get one for every day the car was driven, where does it end,yes I was in the wrong but only by mistake, but how many fines do i need to pay.

Now I promise this ain't one of my jokes or wind ups, and may be a warning for others, long story, stick with it.

About 3 weeks ago a DVLA van pulled up in my street, before I new it they were out and clamped my car, I was bouncing and my missus was screaming coz she thought I'd be jailed, we'll leave it at that.

Anyway it transpires that when I moved house and even after notifying the DVLA of my change of address whilst my licence was updated my car log book wasn't, so all reminders etc were being sent to my old address and not passed on to me.

So my car tax had run out, and whilst the onus was on me to check, I will admit checking my windscreen to read my tax disc isn't something I do as second nature, but I do react to the written reminders as we all have to.

So getting to the point, £260 for my car clamped, went straight to the post offie updated my tax and had car un-clamped.

Now 3 weeks late I get 3 separate summons from DVLA in Bournemouth, one saying I have to pay £108 coz my car was reported for being outside my house with no tax, another for ^9 because on the second of Feb it was seen in Merthyr with no tax and another for £69 coz it was seen in taffs Well on the 23rd feb with no tax.

So basically to date I would have had 4 summons for the one offence of having no tax, now If I pay these there could be another six or seven in next weeks posts.

Mad, if you drive with no insurance and get caught, you get a fine of say £200, you don't then get one for every day the car was driven, where does it end,yes I was in the wrong but only by mistake, but how many fines do i need to pay.

Somebody has grassed you up in my opinion. Unless a copper has clocked you, which I doubt
cos they have the power to remove your car. I would write back and deny the incidents and
say that the day you were clamped was the first time your car had been on the road with no
tax. It had been in a locked garage, off the road, and that the reason it was on the road that
day was cos you were just on your way to buy tax. Let them show proof. "would you mind
sending me the evidence because im truly baffled" word it nicely. Like "I can only imagine
whoever says it was my vehicle was mistaken"... The new laws now say you can be done for
no tax even if the car is on your drive I think, but youd need to find out if they apply here.
Doesnt sound like it? or why bother telling you they'd seen it on the road

I've heard of loads of examples of tax disc grasses. My mate had someone leave a note on his windscreen reminding him. I also had someone do that at my old address. On both occasions we had renewed and the tax disc was in the post so I found it really irritating. You'd be surprised the amount of do gooders out there though who gain pleasure in pointing out other people's flaws or mistakes.

No idea on the legal front though. Seems a bit ridiculous. I would have thought now you've paid it that would be it?

what were you doing in merthyr then??

My area of law is Personal Injury claims so I dont offer this as professional advice. However, if it was me, I would take my chances with the Judge.

I would be saying to the Judge, due to an Administration mix up, I old my hands up and admit that between the dates of xx/xx/xx and yy/yy/yy I did drive my car without Car Tax and I hold my hand up and apologise to the Court for that. However, with total respect to the Court, I would ask the Court to consider the penalties that I am being asked to pay.

I would take into Court proof of any debts that you have and say to the Judge that such an excessive penalty would not only have an effect on you but also your family - people, who in this situation, are not guilty.

Like I said this is not professional advice. This is what I personally would do.

I had the exact same problem in jan, i was informed the 'fine' is the fee for having the clamp removed, the dvla will claim back monies for the time the car was untaxed, otherwise they it would pay them not to clamp your car and leave it sitting there untaxed and just send you a fine for each day, i took advice and as above was explained to me.
All i payed was the fee to to have the clamp removed, and £32 in back tax.
Hope this helps.

Now I promise this ain't one of my jokes or wind ups, and may be a warning for others, long story, stick with it.

About 3 weeks ago a DVLA van pulled up in my street, before I new it they were out and clamped my car, I was bouncing and my missus was screaming coz she thought I'd be jailed, we'll leave it at that.

Anyway it transpires that when I moved house and even after notifying the DVLA of my change of address whilst my licence was updated my car log book wasn't, so all reminders etc were being sent to my old address and not passed on to me.

So my car tax had run out, and whilst the onus was on me to check, I will admit checking my windscreen to read my tax disc isn't something I do as second nature, but I do react to the written reminders as we all have to.

So getting to the point, £260 for my car clamped, went straight to the post offie updated my tax and had car un-clamped.

Now 3 weeks late I get 3 separate summons from DVLA in Bournemouth, one saying I have to pay £108 coz my car was reported for being outside my house with no tax, another for ^9 because on the second of Feb it was seen in Merthyr with no tax and another for £69 coz it was seen in taffs Well on the 23rd feb with no tax.

So basically to date I would have had 4 summons for the one offence of having no tax, now If I pay these there could be another six or seven in next weeks posts.

Mad, if you drive with no insurance and get caught, you get a fine of say £200, you don't then get one for every day the car was driven, where does it end,yes I was in the wrong but only by mistake, but how many fines do i need to pay.

I think you may well find that the 2 instances of Merthyr and Taffs Well your car has been picked up by a police car using ANPR systems so they will have a photograph. This means that this may be the local police who have submitted the summons and not the DVLA this means that you will have to pay these fines.

However it may well be that the DVLA Clamping vehicle will pulled up outside your house is the 3rd and that is wrong, these clamping vehicles are fitted with ANPR systems and they may have photographed the car before deciding to clamp it with all the associated fines. This happened to my brother in law as the bastards photographed his car outside his house then clamped it and after he taxed the car and payed the declamping costs a few weeks later he got a fine which his solicitor told him to pay.

Really pissed him off as he was only 6 days overdue and like you he had just forgot about it.

Now I promise this ain't one of my jokes or wind ups, and may be a warning for others, long story, stick with it.

About 3 weeks ago a DVLA van pulled up in my street, before I new it they were out and clamped my car, I was bouncing and my missus was screaming coz she thought I'd be jailed, we'll leave it at that.

Anyway it transpires that when I moved house and even after notifying the DVLA of my change of address whilst my licence was updated my car log book wasn't, so all reminders etc were being sent to my old address and not passed on to me.

So my car tax had run out, and whilst the onus was on me to check, I will admit checking my windscreen to read my tax disc isn't something I do as second nature, but I do react to the written reminders as we all have to.

So getting to the point, £260 for my car clamped, went straight to the post offie updated my tax and had car un-clamped.

Now 3 weeks late I get 3 separate summons from DVLA in Bournemouth, one saying I have to pay £108 coz my car was reported for being outside my house with no tax, another for ^9 because on the second of Feb it was seen in Merthyr with no tax and another for £69 coz it was seen in taffs Well on the 23rd feb with no tax.

So basically to date I would have had 4 summons for the one offence of having no tax, now If I pay these there could be another six or seven in next weeks posts.

Mad, if you drive with no insurance and get caught, you get a fine of say £200, you don't then get one for every day the car was driven, where does it end,yes I was in the wrong but only by mistake, but how many fines do i need to pay.

Gwyn you don’t have to attend court even if you decide to plead not guilty. If I was in your position I would plead guilty to one of the summonses (because like you have acknowledged you are guilty of having no road tax) but not guilty to the other two.

I would put in writing your mitigation about moving home and not realising the tax had run out, but fully accept it was your responsibility to check.

Explain the circumstances in that your car was clamped and you paid a £260 release fee, back tax and a standard fine in another court (giving details)

Explain you believe you have been punished enough and you fully understand your responsibilities in checking your road tax in future, but heaping further fines on you for what is basically the same offence (i.e. punishing you 4 times for the same crime ‘no road tax in the period 'insert date’') is not justified and will cause you severe financial hardship.

It's worth a punt and any fair minded magistraite would probably find you guilty but impose no fine.

BTW I think Castle is correct on how you got caught and the DVLC also check monthly on cars whose tax has expired by more than one month (known as the grace period) before sending out the dreaded clampers.

Thanks for all the help, can see me going to court and pleading guilty and explain my position.

what were you doing in merthyr then??

buying his annual stock of white socks

I've pm'd you Gwyn!

In 2008, I was driving home from work after I had recently bought a new car, Vauxhall Corsa infact. Only being 18 years old, I didn't have a clue about tax and didn't pay much attention to it as my Father used to sort out all that. Anyway, I had a Fiesta a few weeks before, and sold it, but took the tax out of it and put it in the Corsa thinking it wouldn't matter because its the same price.

A Van was parked up in Tondu, and I was pulled over by a police officer. He got out of his car, reached into my car, took the tax disc which was not registered to my Corsa, and said to sit in the back of the car. He read me my rights, but being a young boy, I didn't have a clue what was going on. I had a letter through the door a few months later, stating that I had to turn up in court for Tax Fraud.

To save the hassle, I pleaded guilty. I told them I didn't understand what I was doing, and will learn from my mistakes. The 3 magistrates where understanding but the CPS representive was not, and pushed and pushed to get me into Crown Court. Luckily Enough, I was in college at the time studying to be a Police Officer and had alot of good charactor refrences. I told them that this could ruin my ambitions, and basicly put a spanner in the works. The Magistrates understood that and fined me £140 plus court costs.

Since I have had no respect for the CPS or the DVLA as I thought i was unnessasary to take me to court in the first place, and they could have just fined me in a letter.

In 2008, I was driving home from work after I had recently bought a new car, Vauxhall Corsa infact. Only being 18 years old, I didn't have a clue about tax and didn't pay much attention to it as my Father used to sort out all that. Anyway, I had a Fiesta a few weeks before, and sold it, but took the tax out of it and put it in the Corsa thinking it wouldn't matter because its the same price.

A Van was parked up in Tondu, and I was pulled over by a police officer. He got out of his car, reached into my car, took the tax disc which was not registered to my Corsa, and said to sit in the back of the car. He read me my rights, but being a young boy, I didn't have a clue what was going on. I had a letter through the door a few months later, stating that I had to turn up in court for Tax Fraud.

To save the hassle, I pleaded guilty. I told them I didn't understand what I was doing, and will learn from my mistakes. The 3 magistrates where understanding but the CPS representive was not, and pushed and pushed to get me into Crown Court. Luckily Enough, I was in college at the time studying to be a Police Officer and had alot of good charactor refrences. I told them that this could ruin my ambitions, and basicly put a spanner in the works. The Magistrates understood that and fined me £140 plus court costs.

Since I have had no respect for the CPS or the DVLA as I thought i was unnessasary to take me to court in the first place, and they could have just fined me in a letter.

I am concerned that someone who is studying to be a police officer doesn't have the common sense to look at his tax disc and realise that it has his old cars number plate written on it! Anyway, good luck in your future career, I for one hope that you never have to do investigative work on me I'd be fucked!!

I hope you get it sorted.

In 2008, I was driving home from work after I had recently bought a new car, Vauxhall Corsa infact. Only being 18 years old, I didn't have a clue about tax and didn't pay much attention to it as my Father used to sort out all that. Anyway, I had a Fiesta a few weeks before, and sold it, but took the tax out of it and put it in the Corsa thinking it wouldn't matter because its the same price.

A Van was parked up in Tondu, and I was pulled over by a police officer. He got out of his car, reached into my car, took the tax disc which was not registered to my Corsa, and said to sit in the back of the car. He read me my rights, but being a young boy, I didn't have a clue what was going on. I had a letter through the door a few months later, stating that I had to turn up in court for Tax Fraud.

To save the hassle, I pleaded guilty. I told them I didn't understand what I was doing, and will learn from my mistakes. The 3 magistrates where understanding but the CPS representive was not, and pushed and pushed to get me into Crown Court. Luckily Enough, I was in college at the time studying to be a Police Officer and had alot of good charactor refrences. I told them that this could ruin my ambitions, and basicly put a spanner in the works. The Magistrates understood that and fined me £140 plus court costs.

Since I have had no respect for the CPS or the DVLA as I thought i was unnessasary to take me to court in the first place, and they could have just fined me in a letter.

I am concerned that someone who is studying to be a police officer doesn't have the common sense to look at his tax disc and realise that it has his old cars number plate written on it! Anyway, good luck in your future career, I for one hope that you never have to do investigative work on me I'd be fucked!!

Funny thing for you I find the funny side of it and don't take it too seriously. The fine in the end cost me around £60 as i had a tax rebait from the old tax disc of £77.