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Hello everyone,
I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of advice on this horror show of a situation. Here goes...
I've been summoned to court by the DVLA over an old van that me and my band used years ago. It used to be in the name of the drummer but he left years ago and the van's not in a working state. The van is parked on private land (it's been there since the end of 2008) and we thought (wrongly) that it had been declared SORN. The van was spotted by someone at the start of the year and reported it to the DVLA who clamped the vehicle (the vehicle had an old tax disc which we think caused the vehicle to be reported). We paid the £230 for the clamp to be removed, only for our old drummer to receive a letter stating that the vehicle had not been declared SORN since the end of 2008. We signed the vehicle in my name as it's not been anything to do with him for years. I wrote a response to the DVLA stating it's been on private land, had no tax, MOT, insurance, etc and that it's not been in a working state (we'd happily scrap the thing to be honest). However, I then received another letter a few months ago advising they were referring the case to a court. Yesterday a letter was delivered to me with a court date and also stating the fine can be up to £1000, and if I plead guilty I'd also have to pay £90 towards legal costs as well as a further £808 for the duty period between 2009 and the start of 2013.
Have I got a leg to stand on here or do I just plead guilty and hope they don't charge me the maximum? I'm not sure whether it'd be worth pleading not guilty given our/my ignorance towards the SORN rules. It'd break my heart knowing we've wasted this much money on a van that's probably not worth much more that a few hundred quid!
Thanks in advance.
I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of advice on this horror show of a situation. Here goes...
I've been summoned to court by the DVLA over an old van that me and my band used years ago. It used to be in the name of the drummer but he left years ago and the van's not in a working state. The van is parked on private land (it's been there since the end of 2008) and we thought (wrongly) that it had been declared SORN. The van was spotted by someone at the start of the year and reported it to the DVLA who clamped the vehicle (the vehicle had an old tax disc which we think caused the vehicle to be reported). We paid the £230 for the clamp to be removed, only for our old drummer to receive a letter stating that the vehicle had not been declared SORN since the end of 2008. We signed the vehicle in my name as it's not been anything to do with him for years. I wrote a response to the DVLA stating it's been on private land, had no tax, MOT, insurance, etc and that it's not been in a working state (we'd happily scrap the thing to be honest). However, I then received another letter a few months ago advising they were referring the case to a court. Yesterday a letter was delivered to me with a court date and also stating the fine can be up to £1000, and if I plead guilty I'd also have to pay £90 towards legal costs as well as a further £808 for the duty period between 2009 and the start of 2013.
Have I got a leg to stand on here or do I just plead guilty and hope they don't charge me the maximum? I'm not sure whether it'd be worth pleading not guilty given our/my ignorance towards the SORN rules. It'd break my heart knowing we've wasted this much money on a van that's probably not worth much more that a few hundred quid!
Thanks in advance.
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