GOTCHA!

[Shep Shepherd]

(Bit contentious, but reinstated anyway, as it's getting people talking)

 

As a responsible motorist who somehow manages to keep two cars road legal at once, I truly resent the scummos in my area who drive untaxed (and no doubt uninsured and unroadworthy in some cases) vehicles for months on end and get away with it, so it's nice to know that the local DVLA people are doing something to counter them:

 

 

The tax disc on the pictured Corsa expired in February, so I'd really like to hear the owner's excuse as to why they have had the car on the road for a month without it being taxed.

[Station]

I had some retard walking past while I washing my girlfriend's fully taxed car and say 'I don't know why you're bothering, it's out of date.'

What business is it of this nosey twat whether I tax it or not?

 

February is not even a month gone yet, it worries me that people take extreme concern about pointless shit like this.

[scooters]

facist!

 

 

 

I am less than amused by the local plods round my way. Whilist proving themselves less than useless in tackling the petty crime and vandalism that plagues the area they descended on our road the other day armed with cameras, tyre gauges, note books etc and proceed to check EVERY car on the street to make sure it was kosher. A whole transit van worth of them.

 

This was a day after some wee scrote had bunged a stone off the railway bridge that runs over the street and it had chipped the windscreen of the 240 in the passenger swept area. This happens on a very frequent basis and every 3-4 weeks there is damage caused to vehicles and property by neds chucking stuff off the bridge. I reported it to the police as instructed but the first copper I actually phisically spoke to knocked on the door to berate me for the chip in the windscreen and 'did I know it was an MOT faliure and was dangerous'.

 

I replied in my sweetest voice how pleased I was that Lothian & Borders Finest had decided to tackle uninsured drivers, untaxed cars and unsafe (in their opinion)vehicles in such force and how it made me appreciate the work they did.....

 

but....

 

that it was a shame that they didn't take as seriously the petty crime that is making lives misery for the residents round here and instead decided to 'improve their crime figures' by going after low hanging fruit and pestering those very residents who have been suffering from issues that they seem incapable of addressing. Point of fact being the very crack he was drawing to my attention and how I did not appreciate being told by him that I was at fault for it when it had been carried out due to a vandal and when I spoke to the police about it they delt with me on the phone but they feel it is a good use of resource to come round and point it out to me. Incidentally, the only issue they found out of over 75 cars was the small chip on my windscreen.

 

I sleep well at bed in night knowing my family and property are protected by such a bunch of pillocks!

[Cavcraft]

I'm sure they 'plant' the odd untaxed car sometimes so they can make a big deal of all those terrible untaxed car drivers out there who are worse than drug smugglers/dealers/house burglars. Five weeks out of tax should incur the death penalty, or at least some form of limb amputation.

 

 

 

Or maybe it's not really that big of a deal and not worth getting all 'Angry of Manchester' about.

[nigel bickle]

Less than a month.

 

And we claim to be a tolerant, decent society.

 

And then they came for.....

[KruJoe]

Oh..?

I just went to get popcorn and he's taken his bat and ball home!

Come back Shep, you Volvo-obsessed rapscallion.

[pompei]

It's been a long and trying day but am I the only one that has no idea what is going on here?

[Angrydicky]

I dunno, but there's a Reliant Rialto van that's been cruising around for the last couple of months with a November tax disc, no-one's pulled them up on it yet. In fact if the DVLA have started getting hot on untaxed cars around Southend it must be a pretty new thing, they've always seemed very relaxed around here.

[Negative Creep]

I guess it's easier as having road tax is pretty black and white, it's not something that can be easily contest. Unlike some grinning rat boy who knows more about his "human rights" than the Police do

[KruJoe]

...am I the only one that has no idea what is going on here?

Someone (?) grassed up the owner of a pov-spec Corsa, the tax disk on which had expired end of Feb. SS then posted a picture of it in the street, immobilised by a clamp with the words "UNTAXED VEHICLE".

(Did I recount that correctly, Station/Scooters/Billy/Mr_Bickle?)

[CortinaDave]

I'm with the majority here.. I'm sick of being glowered at by plod for simply driving an old car, or criminalised over trivial tosh and the fact that having a tax disc a few weeks out of date whilst you await pay day makes you osama bin laden.

 

I had a car off the road for nearly a year at one point, and on a SORN. It was still tested tho(just). Needed a couple of tyres for upcoming MOT due to sidewalls cracking so I decided to chance my arm, stick a battery on it and drive it the distance of less than a mile to the local kwak fat to have them fitted.

 

Pulled by the rozzers yards from my front door thanks to the on board anpr and booked for no tax.

 

Letter came through from dvla - £438 fine ! I queried it and its back tax plus "you lied and told us it was off the road " fine, not displaying fine, not having a moustache fine etc.

 

and yet if id mugged an old lady I'd have got a slap on the wrists and a £50 fine. Somethings not right there.

[pompei]

Ah - thanks KJ. T'was like reading a book where someone's torn out the first chapter. Still don't get why it was deleted, though

[Lankytim]

In the good old days the plod would simply tell you to make sure it was taxed next time they saw you.

 

The whole idea of targeting motorists is a pretty sound idea really. If you can afford a car, you can afford to pay a fine. The local drug dealer, or burglar would require quite a bit more leg work on behalf of the police to catch and convict, and would probably not have enough money to pay any sort of fine. With motorists most offences are a simple open and shut case with a fat fine at the end. Everyones happy!

[KruJoe]

don't get why it was deleted, though

 

Shep deleted it himself, no mod intervention here.

 

Deleted due to being too contentious. I shan't bother any more.

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[Last edited by Shep Shepherd on Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:15 pm, edited 3 times in total.]

[Richard]

and yet if id mugged an old lady I'd have got a slap on the wrists and a £50 fine. Somethings not right there.

 

I was in court for speeding once, I got a £60 fine. On the same day there was a guy who had jumped out of a car and set about somebody with a baseball bat, he got a £60 fine too.

[pompei]

[Station]

If you can afford a car, you can afford to pay a fine.

 

I can afford a car, but can't afford a fine. I have no doubt some people can afford 30 - 500 quid the DVLA charges for whatever, but 30 quid is a lot of money to me. Apart from road tax, MOT and insurance and petrol obviously, should we have to expect to have fines on top of that?

[Guest]

On the same day there was a guy who had jumped out of a car and set about somebody with a baseball bat, he got a £60 fine too.

Oh man, that's a right bargain! The work commute will be more interesting from now on, let me tell you. It's Louisville Slugger time!

[Andrew353w]

O.K., Time to confess..... Yes, I DO use the DVLA website to report cars for not having road tax BUT I always give the car's owner at least a month's grace before so doing. In other words, if the tax ran out at the end of January I wouldn't report the vehicle until the beginning of March, at the earliest. As for the declaring the car as SORN, then that means you DON'T drive it (unless going to a pre-arranged MOT) on the highway-no ifs, no buts, you DON'T drive it! It's so easy to do now; internet payment means there's no need to queue up to renew the tax anyway!

 

I reason that those not paying road tax probably don't have insurance or MOT & their cars might be dangerous, not just "iffy". As there's a primary school at the end of our road I don't want any dangerous cars causing accidents there (or anywhere else, for that reason!)

 

Of course, no self-respecting members of the Autoshite community would NEVER do anything like that, so no worries on that score!

[dollywobbler]

Meh. Misjudged the mood. We all make mistakes. Next thread!

[wuvvum]

I do occasionally drive without tax - if I buy a car a few days from the end of a month, I will tend to wait till the beginning of the next month to tax it, and I will often run it around for those few days to make sure it's reliable enough to be worth forking out for a tax disc. However, when I do so I make damn sure that the car is parked off the public highway both at home and at my destination. People who leave untaxed cars parked on the road for extended periods of time are asking for trouble really.

 

I don't drive uninsured though - I couldn't even if I wanted to, as I'm automatically covered by my trader's policy every time I get behind the wheel of a car - and I know enough about cars to be able to tell if a car is dangerous or not, and obviously I won't drive it if it is.

[CortinaDave]

I'm not disputing that i shouldn't have driven the SORNed car. But - faced with a kwak fat literally a mile away, would you have jacked the car up and taken the wheels off etc or would you just have thought sod it and chanced your arm to get the tyres done?

 

So I probably deserved a fine.. but how can anyone justify me being fined £400 plus for driving an otherwise legal car with no tax for a mile while walking around the streets grand theft auto stylee with a baseball bat lands you £60?

 

Its far easier just to nobble a motorist for a petty offence than actually track down scum. and if they do put the effort in the courts arent interested.

 

Thats just wrong.

[Negative Creep]

and yet if id mugged an old lady I'd have got a slap on the wrists and a £50 fine. Somethings not right there.

 

I was in court for speeding once, I got a £60 fine. On the same day there was a guy who had jumped out of a car and set about somebody with a baseball bat, he got a £60 fine too.

 

I've been fined £80 for allegedly not taxing a car I sold months before

[worldofceri]

We should all ring our motors to make them pre-'72. That'll teach 'em.

 

I bet most coppers wouldn't know the difference between a '79 Cortina and a '72 Cortina anyway.

[HillmanImp]

When I was a kid I had not taxed my Imp for 2 years in Worthing but had been in 'Ull for 2 hours and already had a ticket as they were providing employment to people by making them traffic wardens who then made so much money they could afford another traffic warden and so on. The place was crawling with them.

 

How true is it though that your insurance is not valid if you do not have a valid tax disc (within reason, if its a few days out I am sure its not a problem)?

 

The DAF is not taxed at the mo as I have lost the V5 and am hoping it will just turn up. Its SORNed and is just driven to the pub down a small single track road for a pint and back up the hill once a week to keep the moving parts free. Taxing it in May once it is spruced up for the summer.

[wuvvum]

How true is it though that your insurance is not valid if you do not have a valid tax disc (within reason, if its a few days out I am sure its not a problem)?

Load of old bo11ox. If you're fully comp and you have a crash they might use it as an excuse to avoid paying out in full for repairs on your car, but there's no way in hell they can use it as an excuse to invalidate third party insurance.

 

Its SORNed and is just driven to the pub down a small single track road for a pint and back up the hill once a week to keep the moving parts free.

Driving an untaxed vehicle and drink driving? Tsk, tsk, tsk...

[tonedepear]

I'm happy to admit I'm a complete prick about this sort of thing. As far as I'm concerned unless you've just bought it, you've had 6 (or 12) months warning that this was coming up. A week or so, fair enough, but any more than that if you get caught tought tits. I've chanced it a few times when picking up a car, and if I got caught and £-raped, it's my own fault. If you live somewhere where you have to park on-street, then sorting your tax before it runs out should be pretty high up your list of priorities anyway, shirley?

[Craig the Princess]

We should all ring our motors to make them pre-'72. That'll teach 'em.

 

I bet most coppers wouldn't know the difference between a '79 Cortina and a '72 Cortina anyway.

 

There is quite a late Brown Maxi (1978-1980ish) at a number of shows with a -K plate and Free tax

 

I wouldn't report someone for being out of tax unless there were other reasons (i.e they were moaning about me parking 3 taxed cars in the street) but really the law is quite clear and it's not that difficult to stay within it.

 

'm not disputing that i shouldn't have driven the SORNed car. But - faced with a kwak fat literally a mile away, would you have jacked the car up and taken the wheels off etc or would you just have thought sod it and chanced your arm to get the tyres done?

 

I thought you could drive to a pre-booked MoT or to get pre-booked MoT repairs, that is unlucky though.

 

They are out to get you though, I broke down on the A249 (at the M2 roundabout). Pushed the car oonto the grass central reservation and walked to find a payphone. I was gone about 45 mins, as I returned the police were there putting the car on an On-Time truck and £300 later I could get my car back. It was at least 4 yards off the carriageway and clearly not abandoned (note in window, etc). Winkers.

[wuvvum]

I often wonder whether the coppers are taking backhanders from the recovery firms, the way they seem so desperate to tow cars away at the slightest opportunity.

[scaryoldcortina]

I often wonder whether the coppers are taking backhanders from the recovery firms, the way they seem so desperate to tow cars away at the slightest opportunity.

 

closer to the truth than they want to admit... all police forces have a tendered for contractor who does the recovery and storage for them, basically whoever offers the biggest bung gets the work. Once you have the work, you can afford (after a year's worth of legal car theft) to offer more than anyone else for the next year's work. The only firm in my district making a profit from recover/store alone has the police work, and has had it for 8 years now.