DVLA summons

[BooBoo2015]

I have today received a summons to appear before a magistrates court from the DVLA.

It states that it is for failure to insure my vehicle on 08/07/2015. I am aware that had the vehicle been in my possession that it would need to be insured unless a SORN was in place. The issue that I have with the summons (which I have pleaded not guilty to is that I had the vehicle on finance and the vehicle was given back to the finance company on the 11th of February of 2015. I have spoken to the finance company and they have supplied me with a email and sending out a hard copy stating that the vehicle was taken back into their possession on that date and that the vehicle was no longer in my possession from that date.

I also sent a letter to the DVLA notifying them that the vehicle had been given back to the finance company shortly after that date and the first that I heard of the offence was in August of last year. I then sent a letter once again confirming that the vehicle had been taken back to the finance company and as I hadn't heard anything back from the DVLA had assumed that the matter had been closed.

The letter states that I can avoid court action if I pay a £100 fixed penalty. I am against the idea of paying the fine due to not having the vehicle in my possession after 11/02/2015.

Please can anyone advise what is the best course of action would be for me to take in this matter? All help is greatly appreciated in advance.

[R0b]

Re: DVLA summons

Of course you should plead not guilty, do you have a court date for the hearing?

All you need to do is notify the DVLA that the car was handed back, if they fail to process or acknowledge it then it is their fault. The DVLA will try to extort money out of you for this and the fact you have a letter from the Finance Co, will put you in good standing. Have you sent a copy of the letter to the DVLA since the summons has been issued? If not, you may wish to do that and they will no doubt argue that you need an acknowledgement from them or written notification but that is completely untrue and you can rely on s.7 of the Interpretations Act.

Have a google and look at the DVLA cases below where they have tried to take people to court for SORN issues similar to yours but have failed on all levels.

DVLA v James Collins
DVLA v Duncan Peck
DVLA v O’Sullivan, Staines County Court October 2009
DVLA vs Kennedy - convicted at magistrates, appealed case but DVLA withdrew offering no evidence knowing that they didn't have a leg to stand on and would have set a precedent.

[BooBoo2015]

Re: DVLA summons

Many thanks for the quick reply Rob.

The court dais set for the 3rd of March. I am going to follow your advice and send a letter to the DVLA Enforcement Center with a copy of the letter from the finance company. I will certainly be having a look at the above mentioned cases.

I will post back once I have received the reply from the DVLA.

[R0b]

Re: DVLA summons

No worries, if you would like a review of your letter before sending feel free to post it up.

My previous post was taken from another thread here which may also be useful -> http://legalbeagles.info/forums/show...-Summnons-SORN

Expect a similar letter once they receive yours, and they may or may not back down until you are on the steps of court.

[BooBoo2015]

Re: DVLA summons

This is the letter which I am to the DVLA. Please could you cast an eye over it and advise if any changes are required.

The Enforcement Offier
DVLA – Enforcement Centre
Swansea Enforcement Centre
D12, DVLA
Longview Road
Swansea
SA99 1AH

DATE

REQUISITION TO ATTEND XXXX MAGISTRATES COURT ON 03/03/2016

Vehicle registration XXXXXXX

Dear sir/madam

I am writing in regards to the requisition sent to me to attend XXXX magistrates court
on 03/03/2016 to answer charges of being the registered keeper of a vehicle that does not meet insurance requirements.

I will be pleading NOT GUILTY on all charges as I consider I have no charges to answer.

I have attached a letter that I have been provided from The Car Finance Company stating that I handed the vehicle XXXXXXX back to them on the 11^th February 2015. Further to that they confirm that from that date I was no longer in possession of that vehicle.

I am now informing DVLA that I surrendered the vehicle V5 document to DVLA as required by law. The V5 was returned to DVLA by first class post. My responsibility ends as soon as I relinquished control of delivery to royal mail. I take it I do not have to remind you on Section 07 of the Interpretations Act 1978

7. Where an Act authorises or requires any document to be service by post. served by post (whether the expression "serve" or the expression " give " or " send " or any other expression is used) then, unless the contrary intention appears, the service is deemed to be effected by properly addressing, pre-paying and posting a letter containing the document and, unless the contrary is proved, to have been effected at the time at which the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.

In effect what this means is that by correctly addressing an envelope, affixing a stamp to cover the necessary charge (as is required), and by placing the item in a Royal Mail Mailbox, I have fulfilled my responsibility to notify DVLA AS REQUIRED BY STATUTE LEGISLATION.

May I ask other than royal mail, how I am able to deliver the V5 document to DVLA.

DVLA even put their address and postcode on their documents so I must take it that is the normal method for exchange of correspondents.

I will now move onto more details on my responsibilities as to the V5 document

Details on the V5 state –

'Once we know about the changes, you should receive an acknowledgement
letter to confirm that you are no longer responsible for the vehicle. If you do
not receive the letter within 4 weeks, please phone 0300 790 6802.

Can you please advise under what Statute Legislation I am lawfully obliged to contact DVLA if I do not receive any such acknowledgement or correspondents from DVLA.

The question of the legislation on contacting DVLA and statute legislation has already been judged in various county courts and has been found in the defendants favour. This matter has been discussed in great lengths on BBC TV Watchdog.

I will be providing case details to the court if needed

It has been confirmed through Freedom of Information Requests that DVLA do lose mail for which I will be laying before the court as evidence.

I must also inform the prosecutor that I am fully aware of the Paul Kennedy case.

MR Kennedy claimed he was wrongfully convicted of the same offence I am being charged with.
Mr Kennedy appealed his case to Chelmsford Crown Court at 10.00 am on Friday 9^th September 2011.

DVLA prosecutors at Swansea withdrew its cause of action and offered no evidence to the crown court.

No doubt this was to stop a precedence being set as case law being it was a court of appeal and binding on all equal and lower Courts.

I can assure DVLA that if I am summoned before the magistrates and convicted, I will be seeking leave to appeal to the crown court being that magistrates are normally lay magistrates and not familiar with statute legislation.

I trust this letter is explanatory in its context and reserve the right to show this letter in court if needed.

Yours sincerely




Many Thanks

[R0b]

Re: DVLA summons

Personally, its a bit long winded for me and could be cut down. Something below should be more suitable I think

Dear sir/madam

I am writing in regards to the requisition sent to me to attend XXXX magistrates court
on 03/03/2016 to answer charges of being the registered keeper of a vehicle that does not meet insurance requirements.

I will be pleading NOT GUILTY on all charges as I consider I have no charges to answer.

I have attached a letter that I have been provided from The Car Finance Company stating that I handed the vehicle XXXXXXX back to them on the 11^th February 2015. Further to that they confirm that from that date I was no longer in possession of that vehicle.

I surrendered the vehicle V5 document to DVLA as required by law which was returned to DVLA by first class post. You will no doubt be aware of Section 7 of the Interpretations Act 1978 and the numerous cases in which the DVLA have taken to court but have so far failed to prove a successful case. The courts have already confirmed that there is no such requirement for me to contact the DVLA nor do I need to receive an acknowledgement letter; delivering the V5 document by first class post is sufficient to release me of my obligations. Furthermore, the DVLA has publicly acknowledged that there is no law or requirement that drivers are liable until they are in receipt of an acknowledgement. This is further backed up in DVLA v Peck in which the judge confirmed there is no statutory requirement to response or contact the DVLA if a driver fails to receive a letter.

You are therefore put on notice that should you continue to pursue this matter, I shall intend on defending in full and seek wasted costs against you as a result. I also reserve the right to draw the court's attention to this letter.

Please confirm by return that this matter is now closed.


Yours faithfully,

[BooBoo2015]

Re: DVLA summons

Rob,

Thank you for the revised template letter. I have today sent the letter along with a copy of the letter from the car finance company.

I look forward to their reply and will post on here accordingly.

Boo

[fatmcgav]

Re: DVLA summons

Rob,

Thank you for the revised template letter. I have today sent the letter along with a copy of the letter from the car finance company.

I look forward to their reply and will post on here accordingly.

Boo

Boo

Would you mind updating as to the latest on this?
I'm starting down a similar road whereby DVLA have issued me with a £100 fixed penalty for failure to insure a vehicle that was returned to the finance company nearly 6 months ago...

Cheers
Gav

[Openlaw15]

Re: DVLA summons

I have today received a summons to appear before a magistrates court from the DVLA.

It states that it is for failure to insure my vehicle on 08/07/2015. I am aware that had the vehicle been in my possession that it would need to be insured unless a SORN was in place. The issue that I have with the summons (which I have pleaded not guilty to is that I had the vehicle on finance and the vehicle was given back to the finance company on the 11th of February of 2015. I have spoken to the finance company and they have supplied me with a email and sending out a hard copy stating that the vehicle was taken back into their possession on that date and that the vehicle was no longer in my possession from that date.

I also sent a letter to the DVLA notifying them that the vehicle had been given back to the finance company shortly after that date and the first that I heard of the offence was in August of last year. I then sent a letter once again confirming that the vehicle had been taken back to the finance company and as I hadn't heard anything back from the DVLA had assumed that the matter had been closed.

The letter states that I can avoid court action if I pay a £100 fixed penalty. I am against the idea of paying the fine due to not having the vehicle in my possession after 11/02/2015.

Please can anyone advise what is the best course of action would be for me to take in this matter? All help is greatly appreciated in advance.

Update

See this link: must be within 36 days of the penalty being registered. https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/no...y-declarations Call this number: TEC on 0300 123 1059 / 01604 619450 and request this.

The only way you can avoid this is by using a statutory declaration. A stat dec is a statutory (legal) defence where there was fixed penalty for an event beyond your control, ie insurance problem owing to car not in your possession This needs to be done urgently, if the stat. dec. is received in time by the Traffic Enforcement Agency any magistrates' court order for the amounts owed will be cancelled (ie revoked). Can a relevant leaglbeagle please direct him to relevant statutory declaration thread where available?

[Openlaw15]

Re: DVLA summons

Of course you should plead not guilty, do you have a court date for the hearing?

All you need to do is notify the DVLA that the car was handed back, if they fail to process or acknowledge it then it is their fault. The DVLA will try to extort money out of you for this and the fact you have a letter from the Finance Co, will put you in good standing. Have you sent a copy of the letter to the DVLA since the summons has been issued? If not, you may wish to do that and they will no doubt argue that you need an acknowledgement from them or written notification but that is completely untrue and you can rely on s.7 of the Interpretations Act.

Have a google and look at the DVLA cases below where they have tried to take people to court for SORN issues similar to yours but have failed on all levels.

DVLA v James Collins
DVLA v Duncan Peck
DVLA v O’Sullivan, Staines County Court October 2009
DVLA vs Kennedy - convicted at magistrates, appealed case but DVLA withdrew offering no evidence knowing that they didn't have a leg to stand on and would have set a precedent.

Rob, were any of these cases from an appeal court? Do you know what the ratio was in these cases if they were at County Court level? DVLA will want to know how these cases apply. I cannot see DLVA just accepting these cases without a good argument.

[R0b]

Re: DVLA summons

None were appeal court, those cases are ones I have collected over the years, most of which I believe started or began on a number of other forums (can't remember which ones). The only one which came close to an appeal court was DVLA v Paul Kennedy, I believe it was due to be heard at Chelmsford Crown Court. Mr Kennedy had been convicted and he sought appeal on the matter, as soon as he did this the DVLA suddenly withdraw their case offering no evidence. I believe the judge refused initially as he wanted to know why the DVLA wanted to suddenly withdraw their claim against him, but in the end it was dropped.

So they're not binding at all on any other magistrates but the fact there are several cases out there which all come to the same conclusion and possibly more since then would seem to indicate that judges across the country appear to be on the same wavelength.

I may have 1 or 2 transcripts somewhere but I do not have them to hand. The fact of the matter is (and like Stuffed Again's thread I think) the DVLA will seemingly drop the case if it is contested. You can say that the DVLA will not just accept them but if that's the case, why would they simply drop the case where someone decides to appeal?

Yes I appreciate these all relate to SORN issues however the same principle applies, if someone notified the DVLA of a change of Registered Keeper, then that would be a valid defence.

The cases quoted are scattered all over the web so there is plenty to read about them.

A quote from the DVLA on this website here:

A spokesman for the DVLA: “The DVLA does not impose any requirements for customers to obtain proof of posting or use recorded delivery in their dealings with us. However, and this is a key point, the onus is on the customer to ensure their off-road notification is delivered to DVLA.”

“With reference to non-receipt of acknowledgement letters by customers, there is no legal obligation on the customer to contact DVLA if they do not receive their acknowledgement letter. However, and another key point, we do advise customers to contact us if this happens so that we can confirm if their notification has been delivered to us or advise them otherwise how to comply”.

This answers [MENTION=6]Amethyst[/MENTION]'s question previously

[ellegonzalez]

Re: DVLA summons

I have received a court summons for failure to comply with insurance requirements on a DVLA Form 144APR. I can see how this situation has arisen and is a bit long winded.
I have recently moved address in the last 3 months but haven't fully updated all of my details with different parties, in particular DVLA. They may have sent a reminder for failure to insure but with my recent move I can't recall receiving this otherwise I would of dealt with it.

I have a vehicle that I took to Spain last October 2013 to use for a few months on holiday. Unfortunately, the vehicle had a major mechanical fault and broke down and has been sat in a garage waiting to be repaired. I can declare that I should of completed the SORN but again have overlooked this during my house move. The vehicle hasn't been driven since DVLA notified of failure to insure plus it isn't sat on a public highway.

I am happy to plead guilty as I have overlooked this but not intentionally due to the circumstances. What are my options, if any?My initial though is to plead guilty and submit a letter of explanation based on the information I provided in the opening paragraph.

The vehicle hasn't been driven on any roads without insurance, so there was no intention to be illegal.

However, if the information I have provided is credible enough to plead not guilty then I will defend my corner. I don't particularly want a £1000 fine based on an oversight caused by a sequence of events.

I'd like anyone's opinion on whether my story is sufficient enough to plead not guilty?

[paulajayne]

Re: DVLA summons

I have received a court summons for failure to comply with insurance requirements on a DVLA Form 144APR. I can see how this situation has arisen and is a bit long winded.
I have recently moved address in the last 3 months but haven't fully updated all of my details with different parties, in particular DVLA. They may have sent a reminder for failure to insure but with my recent move I can't recall receiving this otherwise I would of dealt with it.

I have a vehicle that I took to Spain last October 2013 to use for a few months on holiday. Unfortunately, the vehicle had a major mechanical fault and broke down and has been sat in a garage waiting to be repaired. I can declare that I should of completed the SORN but again have overlooked this during my house move. The vehicle hasn't been driven since DVLA notified of failure to insure plus it isn't sat on a public highway.

I am happy to plead guilty as I have overlooked this but not intentionally due to the circumstances. What are my options, if any?My initial though is to plead guilty and submit a letter of explanation based on the information I provided in the opening paragraph.

The vehicle hasn't been driven on any roads without insurance, so there was no intention to be illegal.

However, if the information I have provided is credible enough to plead not guilty then I will defend my corner. I don't particularly want a £1000 fine based on an oversight caused by a sequence of events.

I'd like anyone's opinion on whether my story is sufficient enough to plead not guilty?

Start a new thread as this will not be noticed. One case on thread.

[Wanderingstar20]

Re: DVLA summons

Hello

Just to say thank you for the above post and advice.

I have today attended a court hearing for failing to insure a vehicle I had sold 3 months before the offence.

I only found this post yesterday so did attend court with the above template letter and the details of the previous court cases referred to. I also took a witness statement with me from the person who was with me when we posted the V5 for to notify of the new owner, but never needed it as it didn't get that far.

so the representative met with me before the hearing and advised the same as the letter that he believed I was responsible and that I should have read the paragraph about what to do if I don't receive notification. I referred him to the court decision and the DVLA spokespersons quote about not being required to contact if I don't receive confirmation. He did mention that there were several cases that the DVLA had won. I advised that I would be prepared to go through to the hearing based on the cases I had reviewed I also use the sentence in the posts above that "if I am summoned before the magistrates and convicted, I will be seeking leave to appeal to the crown court".

he read the above template letter and my letter that would being submitted for the FOI regarding DVLA postal losses and their tracking system etc

he then advise that he would withdraw the case and cancel the charges but that I should retain proof of postage next time.

There were quite a few people on the list for today hearing and quite a few had been crossed out so not sure if they were the people that paid the fine at the last minute.

so for anyone in the same situation I think it is worth attending the hearing and putting your case as I suspect quite a few people either fail to attend or pay the fine at the last minute. there were 72 listed DVLA cases and only 7 parties turned up.

once again thank you so much for the posters and organisers of this forum, you were so much more help than the solicitor that I consulted with.

Thanks again

[andjac]

Re: DVLA summons

Hello,

I have myself now a very similar situation and wanted to know if the above is all still relevant.

Single justice procedure notice - Failure to comply with insurance requirement

First thing i noticed is the court they have sent me a letter from is a court around 60 miles away, is this correct?

My situation: The car in question was traded in for part of the value towards my new car in march 2017, i then sent the relevant paperwork to the DVLA(not recorded delivery). then 3 months later they sent me a fine notice, I rang them and explained my situation, I was then told to send them a letter explaining the situation which was sent recorded delivery and they received on Sep 3rd 2017. Ii then assumed the problem had gone away.

As of the 3rd of Jan 2018 i have this notice and would like some advice on how to plea. they acknowledge my letter but have stated it took too long and therefore i must face the notice in court.


Thanks in advance