SORN scam 889

And they still probably will. The SORN fine system isn't *that* efficient, you know. I have in my hand here a "Failure to relicense vehicle" letter saying that the car had no tax as of 1st March 2005, and I haven't relicensed it or made a SORN declaration. It says that there are 3 things I need to do now:

- pay £40 by 4th June, or £80 after that, which must by paid by 2nd July - failure to pay *can* result in court proceedings for recovery of the penalty. - license it immediately if it's being used or kept on a public road, or declare SORN if it's not - pay £27.92 arrears of duty.

The date of this letter? 7th May 2005.

A prime example of how absolutely poo their admin is. Over two whole f***ing months to send out a letter, since the expiry of the last tax disc. I sold the car before the tax ran out, and the log book got lost in the post, so it's no longer my problem. Last time a similar thing happened for a van I'd given in part-exchange against another, I waited for the letters to get to the "threatening court action" stage, then wrote them a brief letter, saying the date I'd got rid of the van, explaining that it was no longer my responsibility, and hadn't been for the past x months, and they wrote back to me saying that the fine had been cancelled. It seems that their debt recovery department are a bit more efficient at dealing with things than their "customer services" department. Now why would that be?

I disagree - I don't think your average law abiding person is going to be stupid enough to regularly drive around without tax, given the risks and penalties involved. I just can't see how, given that DVLA take 2 months (since the expiry of the last tax disc) to even get around to writing a letter about not taxing-SORN-ing a vehicle, that it's a deterrent at all for people who are going to chance the odd month here and there without tax.

Precisely. So the vast majority will just renew their tax.

I don't. Most people can read and act on the tax reminder they get in the post. A small proportion of them forget. Many more than that are the type that don't bother doing things the legal way anyway.

That's true. I tried doing a nationwide psychoanalysis of drivers of cars with out of date (or absent) tax discs, but it was such a thankless task that I gave up.

I don't think so - given my one example of how inefficient the DVLA's "automatic fine" system is, this knowledge will spread and it won't make a blind bit of difference. Not unless the DVLA's efficiency improves, but I can't see that happening.

In fact, looking through my pile of "DVLA chickenups that I'll deal with as and when I really need to", 2 months seems to be pretty much the standard time delay between a tax disc expiring and them getting a fine out to you. One of those included a van I sold with about 3 days' tax left on it, back in August, sent the logbook off for, and then got a letter in May 2005 saying that the tax expired at the end of February, trying to fine me for not taxing it or declaring SORN. So someone successfully taxed that van shortly after buying it, filling in a form that went to the DVLA with their name and address on it, and at no point were those details ever checked against the registered keeper's details, or used to amend them accordingly. Just goes to show why so much fraud happens, doesn't it?

Peter