DVLA Fine

[RealAshGraham]

Half three in the morning, and I'm half asleep.. I'll apologise for the wall of text now.

Could do with some advice. Knocked off my bike in September last year, it was a CAT C write off and I was air lifted and all that bollocks. Got a payout for the bike pretty quick, and agreed the insurance company could keep the bike, as it was fucked after trying to take on a Clio.

Cancelled the insurance after the claim was over as I didn't need it any longer, and forgot all about it.. until t'other day.

Got a call from my brother saying I'd appeared in the local rags "Court File".. basically they publish the daily court bollocks.. my full name and age was there. Now, my old street address was there (I moved a month after the crash, DVLA had my new address cause of licence).. but instead of the street name ending in Street, it ended it Road on the paper. It said I was fined £600 for "failing to meet insurance requirements". Called up the court, and it was cause I'd failed to SORN the bike and didn't insure it. They'd sent a few reminders out and then the court notification to the address ending in Road. Told them I didnt have the bike back from insurers, and they took the log book off me, so assumed they would take care of it, and then the fact I'd moved and the DVLA already had the new address, and then that the address they had was incorrect, even though my logbook photocopy did show it being correct.

Argued the toss with them, they said it's not a fault caused by them or the DVLA but myself. I had no choice but the pay the fine, if I ignored it it'd then goto the warrant officers, who'd nick me and make me appear in court.

Can't get any sense from them or the DVLA, even with the excuse you had the wrong blood address and I'd moved. Not forking out £600 for something that wasn't my fault either.

Is there anything I can do, is it worth just ignoring it? My minds boggeled and Google is coming up with naff all!

Cheers![/b]

[lihp]

If the court has awarded the money and issued the fine, then don't ignore it.
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covent.gardens: lihp is my most favourite member ever

[wots]

If it were me, I'd pay the fine and attempt to recover from the insurers, as they didn't handle this correctly. Presumably it still hasn't been changed over and you may STILL be liable. It could happen again. Need Mr Borg to confirm really.
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Currently: Yamaha DT 125 LC2,Repsol Fireblade, and Bumblebee MSX 125

[Rogerborg]

Not my area of knowledge, but...

It's not a "DVLA fine", it's a court fine. It will be collected, by actual court bailiffs, who will ramp up the costs.

You need to deal with this, and deal with it now.

Don't try and argue the merits of the case with the clerk. Tell them that you want to make a "Statutory Declaration" that you were unaware of the proceedings. You will have to go down there in person to do so.

Citizen's Advice, Consumer Action forums or similar can assist with that.

It is entirely your responsibility to inform the DVLA of a change of keeper, export or scrapping of a vehicle. More fool you for trusting your insurer to do so.

You need to light a fire under them now though. Tell them that they need to provide you with written confirmation of when they took the bike, and an explanation of why they did not inform the DVLA. Head everything as "COMPLAINT" and send it to their complaints department.

It does need sorted with the DVLA as well. Everything in writing from now on, just stick to the facts.

Push comes to shove, if your insurer doesn't co-operate then I would (quite seriously) find out the name of their CEO or other big wig and tell the DVLA to register it to them, ideally at their home address if you can find it, head office otherwise. Why not, it's accurate to the best of your knowledge.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

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