Attempted rinsing by DVLA, any tips????

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Don't know if anyone remembers this post from a few weeks back:

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/10017-the-news-24-thread/?p=1178349

 

Basically at midnight at the end of Feb, I SORN'd my Gooner. Next morning drove to work in the Rover 600, taxed it on the computer when i got to work. Unfortunately i got clocked by a DVLA tax checking van on my way to work!!!! MUTHA FUCKA. DVLA sent me a 'fine' of £305. I wrote back and sent them printoffs of email confirmations for proof of SORN'ing car A at midnight on the 28th, and taxing car B at 9.30AM on the 1st March. Pointed out that I taxed the car on the first day that it was possible to do so, and that these two bits of paper showed no days had elapsed where i had been driving an untaxed vehicle. I also said that I had attempted to tax the car online before setting off to work on the 1st, but had had some inexplicable problem doing the secure payment bit so had sacked that off and done the tax when i got to work. Predictably they have written back saying "Rules are that you dont drive an untaxed car on the road, so PONY UP OR FACE A 10 STRETCH DICK HEAD"

 

Now then, being a 40-somehting shiter with too many cars means that I would be lying if i said I have NEVER in my driving career, briefly driven a self-propelled motor vehicle upon the queens highway without the appropriate vehicle exicse duty being paid. However I am not naive/stingy/gullible enough to try dodging tax during my day-to-day zipping about and sure enough on this occasion I have paid my taxes on time and yet am still looking at a £305 fine!!!! If I had been caught up to no good then i would just pay up I guess, but this seems a bit rich to me. I might be inclined to pay £60 or whatever but £300? Come on.

 

I know DVLA hate taking stuff to court cos most people who actually bother turning up to discuss it in court, have a defence strong enough to defeat their general bureacratic fuckwittery and bluffing. I feel reasonably sure that if I turned up in a courtroom with my two bits of paper, and said I tried to tax it online at 7.30am, failed, so tried again successfully at 9.30am on the 1st of the month, a judge would say 'Why in gods name are we even discussing this?' I have made it this far without having any run-ins with the DVLA for this type of stuff though so I am open to any useful tips anyone may have. I'll just underline the word useful.

 

 

^^^^ WANKERS

[chaseracer]

BV72 will be along presently.

[ChinaTom]

I'd give it a go in court. I recently got a £110 congestion charge fine reduced to £1.05 as I had also driven in the zone, but had not done my auto-pay admin until later that day. TFL had changed my account number when applying res disc, and I took the car off the old account number auto-pay, tried to auto-pay on the new account but the system kept crashing / telling me I could not auto-pay the same car on 2 accounts etc. Submitted a mitigation on-line, was told to pay or face a double life sentence. Rang them, explained, and they saw fit to agree with me, sent it in writing, and that was the end of it. I did say I would go to court and try my luck, a long pause followed, then came the decision to let me off.

 

On the other hand, I dropped a cig butt in the doorway of my building as the janitor was sweeping up the pile of butts from the previous night's Slug and Cabbage drinkers. This is normal, not littering. Dropped it as he was there sweeping. 2 community officers walked past and arrested me. I behaved impeccably, janitor came to my rescue, and my 'reasonable remorse' earned me a de-arrest, but a £50 PCN. Lambeth no tolerance policies. So pissed off! Did not fight it after advice from locals. Bastards. Win some lode some.

 

Good luck with it.

 

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk

[vulgalour]

I don't really understand why they're even chasing you for this.  You've paid for the period required.  That should be the end of the matter, shouldn't it?  Suspect mucho automation of systems is causing the problem here.  Sorry, not helpful, just baffled that DVLA are wasting time on this one.

[Guest Breadvan72]

My experience is that DVLA are, despite what the dickheads on Pistonheads say, usually both efficient and reasonable.  Maybe on this occasion you are up against a computer says no type.  I would simply maintain a posture of polite but firm refusal to pay.  I doubt that DVLA will actually proceed to Court on this one, for the reasons that you indicate in your opening post. 

 

If I am wrong, and you end up doing hard Federal Time, I will come and visit you in the Scrubs (well, maybe, if I'm not too busy and there's nothing on telly), but only if I can have a go in your van.

[Guest Breadvan72]

I dropped a cig butt in the doorway of my building as the janitor was sweeping up the pile of butts from the previous night's Slug and Cabbage drinkers. This is normal, not littering. Dropped it as he was there sweeping. 2 community officers walked past and arrested me. I behaved impeccably, janitor came to my rescue, and my 'reasonable remorse' earned me a de-arrest, but a £50 PCN. Lambeth no tolerance policies. So pissed off! Did not fight it after advice from locals. Bastards. Win some lode some.

 

 

When I am Evil Overlord you will get bummed to death by ill tempered Gibbons for that, and then the electric chair, and then a million years in prison, and then community service cleaning the seats in a Cavcraft drunkBay purchase, and then a Paddington Hard Stare.

 

Only smokers think that dropping fag butts is OK.  People who would not drop a Mars Bar wrapper fling butts all over the place.  The punishments I mention above are the mild version, because you are on Autoshite, so you get mate's rates.

[Guest Breadvan72]

PS:  Boll, as you probz know, but some may not, only a Court can impose a fine, so you are right to place "fine" in inverted commas.  DVLA are not fining you, but are instead offering you a (bad) deal.  

[spartacus]

Sorry Boll, I can't offer any useful advice. Good luck though, this does stink of either an automated system or over zealous type going over the top. I think of you fight it common sense will prevail.

[UltraWomble]

^^^ Sorry Boll, no useful advice, though BV offers good insight there.

 

Im still cleared for the prisons in the NW so if you do end up doing time I promise to come & visit you and remove any mobile phones that may have got stuck up your bottom and I'll sign the CSRA so you get a single pad. Cant say fairer than that.

[PiperCub]

The irony here is that you have effectively already paid the 'back-tax' anyway, you paid for, say, 12 months, not 12 months minus nine & a half hours so while the answer is yes, you shouldn't have driven it on the road before taxing it, the fact you have paid in full kind of negates their stance! If you'd waited a day or more then fair enough I guess but not in this case.

 

I agree with BV72 - DVLA aren't all bad but it's silly, petty-arsed incidents like this example of (as the yanks say) nickel-&-diming, just shows them up in a bad light & gives the impression they are another typical useless government agency. 

[Rod/b]

My advice is to let Sheefag give them a call on your behalf.

[Jim Bell]

Offer them a pound a week and send them a shit and an Argos catalouge with no stamps on in the post.

[Jim Bell]

Every day.

[Jim Bell]

For forty years.

[drum]

Is this a case of the system not updating quickly enough or were you clocked before 0930?

Only problem I can see is the dvla arguing that you seeing the van made you tax the car afterwards.

I know that's not the case as the sorn notice proves*.

 

Any right minding person will see what happened here, especially one who has had the online car tax system break down on them. This is dvla though.

[drum]

Also, what happened to the 14 days grace, or was that an urban myth?

[AMC Rebel]

 

 

I agree with BV72 - DVLA aren't all bad but it's silly, petty-arsed incidents like this example of (as the yanks say) nickel-&-diming, just shows them up in a bad light & gives the impression they are another typical useless government agency. 

Off topic a bit but they were wank to deal with over my AMC tax when I tried to do it online and couldn't.  I initiated an official complaint and they failed to meet any of their published deadlines for responses, and when they eventually sorted it out, they offered only a half hearted apology for something that was totally their issue, and no apology for the ages beyond their own promises it took to even get an answer.

[Captain Furious]

Can't really offer any advice, other than to stick it to them in court, because if you get convicted for that then we truly are all f**ked.

 

The "System" isn't set up to deal with even the remotest possibility that someone might be innocent.  As I am currently finding out with a certain "Safety Camera Partnership"

[Alexg]

You'd think they'd be reasonable and shouldn't need to bullshit your way out of it... but you could retrospectively book an MOT your local friendly MOT centre for the 1st March, which you then cancelled when you remembered it was done the other week or whatever (No tax needed to drive to Mot ob'). Or do you have trade-plates at work? Just claim there's a set in the window and it's not your fault the camera angle doesn't capture it.

[scaryoldcortina]

Don't try to BS your way out, stick to your guns and keep arguing exactly the same point until they give up or a judge makes them stop.

[Craig the Princess]

Can you sell an angry photo and the story to the Daily Mail to run an anti-DVLA front page. Bonus points if the DVLA blame it on an EU regulation.

 

Should more than cover the £305

[Captain Furious]

You'd think they'd be reasonable and shouldn't need to bullshit your way out of it... but you could retrospectively book an MOT your local friendly MOT centre for the 1st March, which you then cancelled when you remembered it was done the other week or whatever (No tax needed to drive to Mot ob'). Or do you have trade-plates at work? Just claim there's a set in the window and it's not your fault the camera angle doesn't capture it.

 

Lets not make a simple tax fine into a prison sentence for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, eh

[Alexg]

Can that happen in a civil matter?

[Alexg]

To be fair, it was only some extreme blagging tips I fully expected to be ignored.

[Rod/b]

Just ignore it, it'll go away....

 

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/parking-charge-scotland-24000-ignoring-notices-warning-a7665346.html

 

(Where do the urls keep disappearing to??)

[Eddie Honda]

Also, what happened to the 14 days grace, or was that an urban myth?

There has never been grace. The only grace was to display a disk in the window whilst waiting for those online disks of yesteryear in the post. Still had to be taxed.

 

The only thing that did exist in the past was discretion and that was all down to the individual on the day.

[Captain Furious]

I don't know actually, suspect it would probably turn into a criminal matter fairly quickly if you got rumbled (and I know you weren't totally srs)

 

The problem you have here is that technically, to the strict letter of the law, they're right.  But on the other hand, FFS, £305?  Its already set up so they get paid the whole month regardless (and twice if you happen to change owners)

[Cavcraft]

I was legitimately on the way back from an MOT and got pulled. Sent them all the proof from test centre etc and the wankers still did me because I'd stopped outside a mate's house on the route home.

[nigel bickle]

Bend over Boll. Apply lube.

 

Cos DVLA

[garbaldy]

When i last moted and taxed a car at the same time it took the doovla four days to show as legal,

Strange as it should be instantly updated