How to fight back against some DVLA fines

[Throttled]

If you find yourself on the receiving end of a DVLA fine for supposedly not telling them you have SORN'd your vehicle or regarding insurance, by failing to notify them or failing to act if you do do not get a receipt from them, here is a suggestion as to what you can do next. (I am assuming you did send the SORN etc documentation to the DVLA here)

Write to them and

1 - refer to a Clerkenwell District Court case in October 2009 when a biker James Collins won a case by showing all he needed to do was post them the from he had SORN'd the bike. Since a FOI request had found the DVLA lose stuff all of the time and that the DVLA post letters out and consider them to then have been received, the cannot fine Mr Collins for supposedly not posting the documents to them.

2 - refer to a Horsham County Court case in March 2010 where a Duncan Peck won a case with the DVLA as the court agreed the DVLA have no stautory power to require someone to contact them when they fail to get a receipt from them regarding acknowledgement a vehicle has been SORN'd or sold.

3 - show that you have proof you did sell, SORN or insure the vehicle and you will present that at court.

Hopefully, they will back down and you will not be fined. In effect you are doing to the DVLA what they do to others which is to challenge and hope they are not up for a fight, back down and pay up.

This is not guaranteed, but I was reading up on this issue and there is a real problem with the DVLA and their admininstration system. I know I am part of 'authority' but I hate to see any authority over stepping the mark and would always encourage people to fight back, cleverly!

Reference http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/03/dvla_court/

[megawatt]

Good post mate. Just re-sorned my trackabike, a month late

[donhuzayfa]

You should be my lawyer you know ur sh*t

[Throttled]

Prior to getting to court both parties are encouraged (legally obliged depending on the circumstances) to disclose their evidence to the other side prior to going to court.

The above is a suggested defence that you should disclose in writing to the DVLA when you reply to the issuing of the fine. It is not to wait to produce as your defence once at court.

This is like the advice you get get to check to see if a parking ticket has been correctly issued before just going ahead and paying the fine without checking, as many authorities rely upon.

[Dean-J]

I would just like to add to this as i have done it and won.

I was being taken to court for failing to tell the DVLA about selling a car.

I appealed against it on the grounds that i had sent the V5 back to them, and was told that as i had not received a notification back from them, it was my responsibility to contact them and notify them of the change of ownership and that i MUST pay the fine.

I wrote back and expanded on my position. According to statutory law it is reasonable to expect that once posted, a person has fulfilled their legal requirement to notify of such changes. Receiving confirmation from the DVLA is NOT a lawful requirement. I had fulfilled my requirements, and therefore to have any chance at a successful prosecution, they would have to PROVE that i had not posted the V5. I then suggested that as there was absolutely no way possible in which they could prove this, they should drop the case and save wasting everybody's time and the DVLA's money for the court fees.

3 Days before the case was due, i received a letter stating that under the circumstances, they would not be pursuing the matter any further.

So, you can win against the DVLA, however i am not sure that this would work in the case of SORN declarations as you can check this online etc.

[Throttled]

Hi, follow plead not guilty and inform the DVLA of your defence as shown in steps 1 to 3 and ask them on what legal grounds do they intend to proceed against you.

Disclosing each others evidence prior to a trial is designed to limit the number of cases going to trial and basically save money. Remember, going to trial costs the DVLA money.

[790Bonneville]

...And so to sum up Mlord ...Throttled said so!

[Thinkbiker]

actually it's much simpler than you make out.

There is no burden in law for a registered keeper to prove they have posted the SORN document to the DVLA

There is no burden in law for a registered keeper to contact the DVLA if they have not received the SORN confirmation.

So you do not have to provide any evidence 'I posted it on xx/xx/xxxx' is your defence the burden is on the DVLA to prove you didn't.

Any magistrate, should you ever actually end up in a court room will be well aware of the burden on either party to supply evidence and well aware of case law.

so keep it simple your response to the threatened fine is;

"Dear DVLA

I posted the SORN document by (1st class or 2nd class) post on xx/xx/xxxx

Yours sincerely"

it is as simple as that!