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Hello everyone,
My car was clamped in error last Friday (5th) afternoon as a result of the new car tax system and I may need your help to change the way the law is enforced.
I bought a used car on Friday and the dealer taxed it for me in the morning. I drove the car home and parked it outside my house. The car was then clamped at around half two for not having car tax.
Car tax discs are now obsolete and car tax enforcement relies on a database to determine if a car has been taxed. My car wasn't in the database at the time and NSL, the car tax enforcement sub-contractors, clamped my car accordingly. I rang NSL immediately after discovering the clamp, but they refused to remove the clamp because my payment was still not in the database. They wanted me to drive (somewhat difficult with a clamped car) to their depot with the receipt! I was also in touch with the DVLA on Friday afternoon and they also could not see the payment. I called the police (non-emergency number) on Saturday because I considered the clamp to be illegal. Although they sympathized, they said it was a civil issue and to contact a solicitor. I sent emails of complaint to NSL and the DVLA and I also rang DVLA first thing on Monday morning to threaten legal action if they didn't remove the clamp; it was removed shortly thereafter. The DVLA also confirmed that the database would always be up to 24hrs out of sync with reality.
The new car tax system is flawed as the database can never be truly up-to-date. Car tax enforcement cannot continue their "clamp first and ask questions later" modus operandi. This is where I will need your help.
I've checked the legislation that allows sub-contractors to clamp vehicles (Vehicles Excise and Registration Act 1994 Schedule 2A) and it says they may only clamp where they have reason to believe there is an offence. I would like to challenge the use of the database as proof that there is an offence, since it can never be accurate. This law was made when we had tax discs and interpretation was black and white, i.e. no tax disc = clamp. However, this cannot be applied to the database method of enforcement.
I would recommend that the DVLA take pictures of the offending vehicle, wait 72 hours, recheck the database and then send a fine in the post. This would be similar to how automated speed-traps work and would allow for the lag in the database.
The reason why I have called this illegal clamping is because even though I was immediately able to prove that tax had been paid, the clamp remained on my car for three days. This meant that the clamping company was acting outside of their remit and are liable for extortion, blackmail, fraud and damage to property.
I may have been very unfortunate in this case and it's not likely to happen too often, but I think that the system is flawed. I did nothing wrong but I was treated like a criminal for three days.
The reason why I'm posting here is that I found a similar thread through google:
http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ed-urgent-help
That post inspired me to fight back and provided a lot of useful information.
I would really like to get the DVLA to change their method of enforcement. My actions so far have been:
I was also thinking of submitting a small claims application against NSL, but I don't have any expenses to claim so this could be difficult. Any advice?
Can anyone suggest any other actions that I could take? I'm an engineer during the day so I can see the problem with the system and the solution, but I don't have the legal knowledge or political correctness to fight this on my own.
Thanks
My car was clamped in error last Friday (5th) afternoon as a result of the new car tax system and I may need your help to change the way the law is enforced.
I bought a used car on Friday and the dealer taxed it for me in the morning. I drove the car home and parked it outside my house. The car was then clamped at around half two for not having car tax.
Car tax discs are now obsolete and car tax enforcement relies on a database to determine if a car has been taxed. My car wasn't in the database at the time and NSL, the car tax enforcement sub-contractors, clamped my car accordingly. I rang NSL immediately after discovering the clamp, but they refused to remove the clamp because my payment was still not in the database. They wanted me to drive (somewhat difficult with a clamped car) to their depot with the receipt! I was also in touch with the DVLA on Friday afternoon and they also could not see the payment. I called the police (non-emergency number) on Saturday because I considered the clamp to be illegal. Although they sympathized, they said it was a civil issue and to contact a solicitor. I sent emails of complaint to NSL and the DVLA and I also rang DVLA first thing on Monday morning to threaten legal action if they didn't remove the clamp; it was removed shortly thereafter. The DVLA also confirmed that the database would always be up to 24hrs out of sync with reality.
The new car tax system is flawed as the database can never be truly up-to-date. Car tax enforcement cannot continue their "clamp first and ask questions later" modus operandi. This is where I will need your help.
I've checked the legislation that allows sub-contractors to clamp vehicles (Vehicles Excise and Registration Act 1994 Schedule 2A) and it says they may only clamp where they have reason to believe there is an offence. I would like to challenge the use of the database as proof that there is an offence, since it can never be accurate. This law was made when we had tax discs and interpretation was black and white, i.e. no tax disc = clamp. However, this cannot be applied to the database method of enforcement.
I would recommend that the DVLA take pictures of the offending vehicle, wait 72 hours, recheck the database and then send a fine in the post. This would be similar to how automated speed-traps work and would allow for the lag in the database.
The reason why I have called this illegal clamping is because even though I was immediately able to prove that tax had been paid, the clamp remained on my car for three days. This meant that the clamping company was acting outside of their remit and are liable for extortion, blackmail, fraud and damage to property.
I may have been very unfortunate in this case and it's not likely to happen too often, but I think that the system is flawed. I did nothing wrong but I was treated like a criminal for three days.
The reason why I'm posting here is that I found a similar thread through google:
http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ed-urgent-help
That post inspired me to fight back and provided a lot of useful information.
I would really like to get the DVLA to change their method of enforcement. My actions so far have been:
- Email of complaint to NSL - No response . . . not surprised
- Email of complaint to DVLA - No response (can be up to 10 working days)
- Email to local councillor and MLA (Northern Ireland Assembly) - no action taken but they were willing to help me to get the clamp removed.
- Email to MP - just today
I was also thinking of submitting a small claims application against NSL, but I don't have any expenses to claim so this could be difficult. Any advice?
Can anyone suggest any other actions that I could take? I'm an engineer during the day so I can see the problem with the system and the solution, but I don't have the legal knowledge or political correctness to fight this on my own.
Thanks
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