To not go to court?

[SorryExcuseMeThankYou]

Posting for further advice:

Moved house early 2022 and scrapped car summer 2022. Failed to notify DVLA of both situations (wasn't aware of this at the time, but of course not an excuse).

Fixed Penalty notice received for driving without insurance end of 2022. I did not receive this due to the change of address and car had been scrapped anyway.

Further Steps notice received for almost £500 at new address. I took the option of going to court for statutory declaration as I wasn't aware of the initial fine.

I've now been given a court date but I'm not sure what to do.

Can anyone advice what my options are and what the potential outcomes for all scenarios could be please?

Is there a better option I should be going for?

Thanks

The case is now re-opened.

You have to go to court with all the evidence you have, new tenancy agreement to show when you’ve moved, paperwork about the scraping of the car.

Exactly this. This is your fault OP, you can’t just refuse to engage with it.

Well your choices are either pay what is owed, or go to court and hope they take pity and reduce the fine. If you lose, does that mean you then pay court fees?

How could you get a fine for driving without insurance when the car had been scrapped?

The fine for failing to update the DVLA alone can be £1000.

Thanks both @ChardonnaysBeastlyCat will and @Mrsttcno1

If I go to court, will I then be fined for not informing DVLA? I think that's my main worry. I don't want to come out with a bigger fine than I already have 😫.

Or are they likely to not bring that up?

How can you have received a fine for driving without insurance when the car had already been scrapped?

I think you need to stop burying your head in the sand and deal with this properly.

You should have engaged at th earliest opportunity. You should now go to court and plead your case.

What do you think you will achieve by not going? Go and explain. Take any evidence you have. Accept the fine, make a payment plan. Put it behind you.

You might still get it, but in any case it will much worse if you don't go and explain everything.

I should have explained better.

I could pay the fine and not go to court, although it's tight and I would rather not.
Or I could go, present all the evidence I have that I had scrapped the car and get the fine waived.

Sounds like the less painful option might be to just suck it up and pay the fine if there's a risk of an even bigger fine.

Sorry all my head's all over the place.

Then why did you go to the trouble of the Statutory Declaration?

No one here can tell when to do.

If you think you have evidence that the car was scrapped whence fine was issued, then you have chances that the court will find in your favour.

How did you get a fine for driving without insurance when you weren’t driving without insurance? You’s have to have been caught actually driving.
Plenty of people store their car in their garage without insurance and don’t SORN it. They don’t get random fines in the post.

What actually happened? We’re you driving without insurance before you scrapped it?

(Obviously you are legally required to have insurance even if it’s stored in your garage, but you only get caught if the police were to come and check it for some reason).

Were you driving without insurance at any point?

Please say you weren't driving without insurance

Plenty of people store their car in their garage without insurance and don’t SORN it. They don’t get random fines in the post

Yes, they do get random fines in the post.
You must either SORN your car and keep it off the road, or you must have insurance. It is an offence to have a car - even on private land - that has no insurance and has not been SORN.

I wasn't driving without insurance. Never have.
I'm guessing the scrap company sold the car on, but because I hadn't notified DVLA, my address was still on their system for the car.

The first I knew about the issue was the fine for £500 from the court. So I rang them and they explained what it was about and gave me the option for Stat Declaration. Its only now I'm thinking it might not actually be a good idea. 😕

For the stat dec you just need to prove that you never received the paperwork so take everything you've got to show that you moved house etc. Obviously you should have changed your address on your licence and set up postal forwarding but there's a good chance you will still get the stat dec granted if you have evidence of the move.

If the stat dec is granted then you have a clean slate and the case is reopened so the court will then deal with the original charge from the beginning. If the actual charge is driving without insurance, did you do it? If not, plead not guilty, and take in your proof that you were insured (documents etc).

If you were driving without insurance, regardless of whether the car was scrapped afterwards, then plead guilty as your fine will be smaller. Usual penalty for this charge is 6 points on your licence and a band C fine (which is 1.5 times your weekly income, reduced by a third for a guilty plea) plus court costs (usually about £85) and a victim surcharge which is 40% of the fine. Being fined by the DVLA for not changing your address is a separate matter and not something that usually comes up in court, in my experience.

Ime a representative from the dvla will be at court and you get chance to show paperwork without even going into a court room. . Go smartly dressed and take any relevant paperwork.... We all make mistakes op.

Just saw that you did have insurance - in that case definitely go to court! Don't pay a fine you don't have to.

I've been sitting in traffic courts for 10 years and never seen someone fined for not changing their address - of course that doesn't mean it never happens but I'd be very surprised if it came up.

If you don’t go to court you’ll be in a whole lot worse trouble. This won’t go away by pretending it’s not happening.

Get the documents together to show what happened and that you were insured and: go!

You can’t surely believe that not going will magic all this away?

@SorryExcuseMeThankYou @DaveWatts for what it’s worth post forwarding does not apply to dvla post. They are exempt as the post has to legally be delivered by o the registered address of the vehicle. I was similarly caught out by this (overhanging a cross hatched area in central London, automatic fine) as the letter didn’t reach me until 2 yrs later by which time a ccj had been taken out and the debt had been sold to a collection company. I paid the fine and accrued debt, did not get an additional fine for not informing dvla of change of address because by then the debt wasn’t theirs to claim.

Thanks all! All helpful information.

Going to court is not a pleasant experience, but the Legal Adviser will have a chat with you, if you are unrepresented. They cannot give you advice on what to do to, but they will explain your options.

What happened when you scrapped the car? Did you give them the v5? Do you have any documentation to prove you believed you would no longer be responsible for the vehicle?

if you have documentation for you scrapping the car you should absolutely take it to court and hopefully have the fine revoked!

This makes no sense. If you have a FPN for no insurance you will also receive a mandatory minimum 6 points on your licence.

If you were not driving the car at the time you absolutely should go to court to disprove this. The consequence of a conviction of driving without insurance will easily outweigh any fine you have to pay