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DVLA court summons

4 replies

Secondsop · 17/09/2019 23:03

Hello, any help would be much appreciated. I got a letter from the DVLA a few months ago saying our car was untaxed for a period of months and offering a settlement. I rang them up because, I’m checking, it turned out that my direct debit hadn’t auto-renewed. They said to write in with my mitigation, which I did, and my letter explained what had happened and I asked them to use their discretion not to fine me and that I was happy to pay the unpaid tax. Roll forward a couple of months and I’ve now received a summons to the magistrates court for the offence of an untaxed car and it says that they didn’t receive a written response to their earlier letter. So it looks like they didn’t get my letter / printouts. I want to call them in the morning to ask if they’ll just let me pay and whether they’ll discontinue proceedings - I have no problem paying but I was hoping there would be a stage of them considering my letter! Does anyone know whether the DVLA will do this? Surely they won’t want the hassle of court if I’m just offering to pay? I don’t want to plead guilty even if that does dispose of it all efficiently, because an offence on the record will cause a significant issue for my employment. I can’t sleep thinking about it.

OP posts:
pp12 · 18/09/2019 07:46

I would ring up and check, How did you send the letter? maybe ask if you can take a copy of it to the local DVLA/VOSA office.

Secondsop · 18/09/2019 07:52

Hello, thanks for the response. I posted the letter but have no proof of postage. I don’t think the local offices exist anymore but will give them a call. The letter was only providing mitigation asking them not to fine me in the circumstances - i wasn’t trying to argue that they were wrong about the car being untaxed. So had they continued to impose the fine after seeing my letter I would have just paid it all!

OP posts:
Secondsop · 18/09/2019 08:44

Good news - I rang up and explained everything and if I’m prepared to just pay the amount then the case will be withdrawn. They were very helpful. Have come back to update in case this is helpful to anyone else in the same predicament.

OP posts:
SpoonBlender · 18/09/2019 08:53

Hurrah! Well done on chasing it up.

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