'Bystander', a magistrate with an interesting blog:

http://thelawwestofealingbroadway.blogspot.com/

 made an interesting post to said blog recently:

"...legislation requires magistrates to impose a minimum penalty of
1,000 on those who have neither renewed their excise licence nor made
an SORN declaration. This was fixed in the 2003 Finance Act and
slipped through, unnoticed by the Department for Constitutional
Affairs, the Justices' Clerks' Society and the Magistrates'
Association. Magistrates are given no discretion and do not have the
power to take account of the defendant's means, which runs contrary to
one of the basic principles of sentencing, and indeed of justice.

The Mags' Association has approached the DVLA and they have agreed to
use the legislation only in 'exceptional circumstances'. No cases have
been brought since last year."

Seems that possibly the best advice to those who have fallen foul of
SORN recently, and received a penalty, would be to ignore it - since
DVLA won't take you to court?

Mike
--
http://www.corestore.org
'As I walk along these shores
I am the history within'

"Mike Ross"  wrote in message
news:1121622145.4836fca124329c3bf33a8863e70c529a@teranews...

> 'Bystander', a magistrate with an interesting blog:
>
> http://thelawwestofealingbroadway.blogspot.com/
>
>  made an interesting post to said blog recently:
>
> "...legislation requires magistrates to impose a minimum penalty of
> 1,000 on those who have neither renewed their excise licence nor made
> an SORN declaration. This was fixed in the 2003 Finance Act and
> slipped through, unnoticed by the Department for Constitutional
> Affairs, the Justices' Clerks' Society and the Magistrates'
> Association. Magistrates are given no discretion and do not have the
> power to take account of the defendant's means, which runs contrary to
> one of the basic principles of sentencing, and indeed of justice.
>
> The Mags' Association has approached the DVLA and they have agreed to
> use the legislation only in 'exceptional circumstances'. No cases have
> been brought since last year."
>
> Seems that possibly the best advice to those who have fallen foul of
> SORN recently, and received a penalty, would be to ignore it - since
> DVLA won't take you to court?
>
> Mike


Interesting. I had a SORN penalty notice a while ago, posted about in
uk.rec.cars.misc, and basically I told them (truthfully) that I had
submitted SORN which had failed to be registered. They wrote back referring
to it as an alleged offence, and saying they were taking no further action.
If what you say is correct, that would explain it. I was expecting them to
take very definite action.

Although I would suggest the writing of a polite letter would be a more
suitable course of action than simply ignoring the penalty notice. If it's
marginal it wouldn't be a good idea to piss them off.

Steve

I think it's only in exception circumstances that you'll get into
trouble.

For example I had a kit car which I failed to update the address on the
V5 for. As a consequence I never got any tax reminders for it.

I basically forgot all about this for three years (stupid I know, but
I'm disorganised like that) and kept it off the road the whole time.
When I came to sell it realised I hadn't been re-sorning it and the
address was wrong.  I phone the DVLA and asked what to do, they said
just write a letter explaining and I should be OK.  So I did, saying I
wanted to make sure everything was above board and putting in writing
that it'd been kept off the road the whole time.

So my new V5 turned up, then the SORN declaration and that was that.
No hassle or comeback.

I think if you're honest enough with them to admit any mistakes you've
made in the paperwork then you'll be OK.

Tony

On 29 Jul 2005 14:57:04 -0700, tony.jackson@ntlworld.com wrote:



>I think if you're honest enough with them to admit any mistakes you've
>made in the paperwork then you'll be OK.


Also it wouldn't take much 'looking up' for them to see you also have
two other vehicles on the road (all fully taxed / insured etc) and
therefore you are unlikely to be using the untaxed one?

If it was the only vehicle registered in your name ...

I think the whole SORN thing is a good idea in principal but (as
usual) it's more likely to trip up the forgetfull law abiding driver
(say who forgets to sorn an off the road vehicle the first time round)
than the real tax dodgers (who don't register the vehicle in their
name anyway)?

I'm waiting for a SORN fine for my Messerschmitt KR200 .. that hasn't
been near the road for over 20 years ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

> I think the whole SORN thing is a good idea in principal but (as
> usual) it's more likely to trip up the forgetfull law abiding driver
> (say who forgets to sorn an off the road vehicle the first time round)
> than the real tax dodgers (who don't register the vehicle in their
> name anyway)?


Zackly.  That's my big gripe with the system, and shows how utterly 
pointless it is.  I'm not going to start ranting again about it - did that a 
plenty in the other thread a little while back.....

-- 
Peter

"You're not a real UKRCMer until you've owned a Rover 620ti."

On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 01:02:31 GMT, T i m  wrote:


>On 29 Jul 2005 14:57:04 -0700, tony.jackson@ntlworld.com wrote:
>
>
>>I think if you're honest enough with them to admit any mistakes you've
>>made in the paperwork then you'll be OK.
>
>Also it wouldn't take much 'looking up' for them to see you also have
>two other vehicles on the road (all fully taxed / insured etc) and
>therefore you are unlikely to be using the untaxed one?
>
>If it was the only vehicle registered in your name ...


Like mine, for instance. I'm an expat - I only put the thing on the
road one month a year. 

My biggest gripe with Swansea isn't SORN, it's their idiot computer
system which can't accept an overseas address on the V5. How can they
refuse to accept my current address, and then turn around and blame me
when I don't receive tax/SORN reminders?

Mike
--
http://www.corestore.org
'As I walk along these shores
I am the history within'