Strange. I don't understand the misinformation going around saying you may need to retake your test if a certain amount of time passes since failing to renew your licence. Some say two years, some say 10.

That was my understanding - however I did read in some places that you could be required to re-take your test if more than 2 years passed since your licence was due for renewal. Is this inaccurate?

That was the first place I looked. It states: ''You must renew a photocard licence every 10 years - you’ll receive a reminder before your current licence ends.'' My question is what happens if I don't?

I moved away from the UK some years ago, I've obtained a new driving licence in my new country but it's not an EU one or one from a country that can be converted directly into a UK licence. The date on my UK driving licence ran out in 2014 - I made attempts to try to renew it so I could at least keep it up to date but it appears you must use a UK address to update it and it is an offence to have an address on your driving licence where you are not resident. I do plan on returning to the UK at some point and as my new driving licence is not from a reciprocal country that can convert directly into a new UK licence - it would be an awful pain to have to return and do a new theory and practical driving test to get a new UK licence. I heard from some places that if you leave it more than 2 years to renew your UK licence they can require you to take the test again, other places say no such thing and that the licence is valid until you're 70 it's just the photo that needs updating. Can anybody give me a solid answer? Assuming I haven't reached the age of 70 when I return to the UK, if say the last date on my UK licence was 10 years ago will I have no problems renewing it with an updated photo for the usual renewal fee, no re-test required?

But that's basically a dead end, right? Even more irritating as I look at the photographs included on the letter, there's another car driving up the bus lane adjacent to my car on one of the photos about 15 seconds later. This is a money spinner plain and simple penalising the hard working motorist as always in this country and merely lining the pockets of the council lackies.

So my choices are pay it or pay it?

Today I received a Being in a Bus Lane Penalty Charge Notice for having driven in a bus lane in Oxford on Saturday afternoon. It's simply a case that this is the first time I had driven in Oxford and didn't know. The letter seems to be from NSL Services Group on behalf of Oxfordshire County Council. This has never happened to me before. My question is, is this one of those unenforceable fines like the private parking companies [problem] for parking on private land where you simply ignore their letters and nothing happens, or is this really enforceable where if I don't pay it then it really will go to court? What really annoys me is I already paid £20 to park in Oxford for a few hours so they already ripped me off once this week!

It's not my petition. I don't know who created it. I just came across it and felt it was relevant.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/41494 Sign this petition and share as much as you can. The only way we can bring about any real change against the immoral conduct of the DVLA is by signatures on the petition.

All opinions welcome to this, that I am finalising to send to all the relevant avenues. To anybody savvy enough, can anyone help identify what specific laws and regulations DVLA are breaking with these tactics for their fines? I'm sure they are breaking quite a few, but it would be good if I can reference some specific ones. Thanks

DVLA SAY THEY'RE 'SORRY' - BUT REVEAL INNER WORKINGS OF CORRUPTION The letter I received today, on behalf of the office of Simon Tse whom I forwarded the details of all this to, confirms that the case has been withdrawn and the matter is now closed. Though they have apologised and confirmed that I did nothing wrong incompliance by keeping the SORN vehicle on a private road, here's the problem I have with all this. They blame this having happened due to a police officer who saw the vehicle parked on what they thought was the public road. It seems DVLA tactics go bad somewhere between receiving the report of an alleged offence and automatically demanding payment from the person the report is about. It states that when the report was received at the Enforcement Centre, 'they were required to send an OCS letter'. The letter states that an offence has taken place, though they had made no efforts to verify this allegation and knew nothing about any truth to it, nor had they even looked at the facts of the matter. The letter is carefully designed to mislead and threaten people, that they are already guiltyof whatever it is, and that their only option is to make payment or be taken to court. I'm not someone who gives in easily to things, though I must admit the threat of court action was so great, that DVLA seemed determined to bring against meand it proving so difficult to protest my innocence, I was very tempted simply to pay up the £100 for the matter simply to be done with and remove all worry and because the amount of time I've wasted resolving DVLA's bad practices have far exceeded £100 worth of my own time. I know I'm not the only person to have thought like this, and of course DVLA counts on this so many people do pay despite their innocence so DVLA perpetuate demanding and processing fraudulent allegations for out of court settlements. It's a separate issue how Surrey Police waste police time and in turn harass innocent members of the public by driving round private property and running number plates on cars that are legally privately parked and reporting them for anything they can. At this rate it certainly seems police cuts are necessary as having them deliberately waste police time like this to avoid doing any real work is also a complete waste of taxpayer's money. I'm inclined to get a copy of the police report submitted to DVLA and raise this as a complaint with Surrey Police, this is not the first time I've witnessed them blatantly wastingpolice time and their refusal to do any real work. The far greater threat though is DVLA persecution of innocent people that forces them to pay false allegations. The process they have described of sending out fines and Out of Court Settlements seems to be one of trying their chances with any and every allegation they can muster up. The letter begins by stating that an offence has taken place, implying you have already been found guilty, it's irrelevant at this stage whether they are right or wrong, whether they even know or check themselves if there is any truth to the allegation or not, or if they even have any evidence of what they are accusing you of. They are simply throwing darts at a board to get as many to comply as possible. The Out of Court Settlement letter provides two options - 'return the form or be taken to court'. There is no mention on the letter for you to query the matter further, protest your innocence, or obtain or provide any useful information other than how to make payment for this allegation that may or may not be true (that's irrelevant at this stage, their only interest is in payment). The only other details on the letter are how you can make payment, implying this is your only option. The only phone number on the letter is a payment line, the people you speak to are under instructions to mislead you further. They tell you that there is no other way to contact the DVLA by telephone, that the phone lines atthe DVLA only exist for making payment and that they are unable to discuss anything other than your credit or debit card details. The reverse of the letter that you 'MUST' complete only gives you the options to confirm that you were the registered keeper and provide your payment details, or provide the details of the person who is the registered keeper - this one is ironic because although you won't have to pay this time it'll pave the way for them to accuse you of a new offence that they don't know whether is true or not, and, yes you guessed it start demanding that you pay even more money. It's all a well-engineered ruse to force even the innocent to submit to paying allegations that the Agency doesn't care whether they are true or not. In view of these facts, it's clear the DVLA acts immorally and dishonestly with a sole focus on money. In what almost seems a vendetta against drivers DVLA have totally lost the faith and confidence of the public, and are ever increasingly the focus of media attention for their unfair harassment of innocent people for false allegations and fines. For example, DVLA have been the subject of almost every season of BBC's Watchdog program Rogue Traders for the last 10 consecutive seasons, and news articles of people wrongly accused by the DVLA who face a difficult and manipulative battle to clear their name are almost daily. It's been less than three years since my last round of complaints with the DVLA that involved a similar case of wrongful accusation, and in closing my complaint on that occasion I stated that I hoped DVLA would clean up their act, and behave in a more responsible, reasonable and honest manner that one would tend to expect appropriate of a government agency. Indeed it would seem the underhand tactics of the Agency has worsened since then and is in an ever increasing state of moral decline, lost in a culture of fines and lies. DVLA routinely make false allegations to demand and take payment from innocent people through victimisation and bullying, and this must stop. The only way it can do this is through implementation of the following: 1. Before automatically sending Out of Court Settlements at every opportunity that an offence may have occurred, a careful review needs to be undertaken of the facts and evidence of the matter to determine whether the alleged offence is in fact true and they are justified in making these accusations. They can no longer be frivolous or opportunistic attempts as they have been. 2. Letters and communications on matters regarding alleged offences, fines and Out of Court Settlements must not mislead, threaten or bully people. Forexample, it is not acceptable to open by simply stating that 'an offence has taken place', then provide no useful or valid information of the alleged offence, as it implies the person has been found guilty, when in fact in many cases no offence has taken place due to how freely DVLA issues these accusations. They should only be able to state that they believe an alleged offence to have taken place. Further, it is not acceptable to threaten that the person must return the form or be taken to court, when that form only has the option to admit guilt by one way or another and make payment. 3. Letters and communications on matters regarding alleged offences, fines and Out of Court Settlements must be clear and invite the person the opportunity to present information and improve communications on the matter.For example, it is not acceptable to simply state that the person 'must pay or be taken to court', this says that these are their only two options andanything else is irrelevant. All the rest of the letter front and rear simply contains information on making payment, which is the only option given to them. They are not afforded the option anywhere to present their side or make further inquiries about the offence that has been so vaguely accused of. The only phone number provided is a payment line where they support misleading people in this way; by saying that there is no other way to contact DVLA by phone and that the phone lines only exist for taking payment. No other contact details are given except for the address to return the form that confirms guilt no matter which section of the form they fill out. All of these things mislead the person to believe that their only two lines of communication by return are to make payment or be taken to court. Contact details must be provided that allow the person to open communications or make the relevant inquiries, for example relevant phone numbers, email addresses, complaints departments. Any form that people 'must' return under threat of being taken to court is not acceptable. 4. Communications on any alleged offence must be clear about what has happened, why they believe this to be an offence, what evidence they have that has led them to reach this conclusion, and be clear and specific in doing so. Simply to state that an offence has taken place is not sufficient, and is deliberately vague as the rest of the letter only contains payment details and the threat of what will happen if they don't pay. The ability to inquire further to gain clarity is essential, people have a right to understand what they are accused of so they can know if they are guilty or not. It's not up to DVLA to decide based purely on greed. The main focus of the letter is payment information, though this is seemingly the only thing DVLA has any competence at, there is no balance to the person they are trying to victimise. These are all reasonable steps any honest organisation would and should carry out before making outlandish demands for payment, threats of taking someone to court and beginning what is for many a campaign to bully them into paying regardless of any legitimacy to the case. Innocent people who often find themselves faced with all of this will often submit through fear. It's shocking that the DVLA doesn't already follow these basic practices that any honest decent organisation would before issuing allegations and threats, the way that it doesn't attempt to follow and the manipulative process it instead employs reveals the Agency's true intentions. It is necessary that the people accused are not innocents forced to pay such demands by deliberate threats and misleading behaviour. The conduct of the Agency has caused this to be a growing problem, and they now appear to thrive on it as a business model of extortion, now a madness of fines and lies. Failure to implement each of these points would only mean that the DVLA continue this practice and willingly take payment for fraudulent allegations.

LOL DVLA are on Watchdog and Rogue Traders almost every season

Right, I've submitted all the facts of the matter regarding the alleged offence, and also detailed all the inevitable trials and tribulations you always suffer whenever the DVLA are involved, and submitted it to the Enforcement Dept., and by recorded mail to the local enforcement office with their letter, and also submitted it as a complaint to the DVLA, and sent it to my MP for the attention of the Secretary of State for Transport. From experience, this is the only way to make sure they don't ignore you. When will this crooked rogue trader finally get it's come uppance?

True - but the key difference between them and any other private company is that they get away with whatever they want, treat people however they choose and are never held to account for their actions that persecute innocent people, it seems as if they operate above the law. There's something rotten in Swansea... IT'S THE DVLA!

The rot from the Swansea office would of course never miss out on an opportunity to try to get more money out of innocent people, regardless of whether they're right or not. I have received a letter stating that the car was parked at the location I said (the private road) without tax (which is obvious as the car was SORN and kept on the private road they stated, so nothing has been done wrong by me) and they require I pay them £100 otherwise they will take me to court. On the day I found the warning notice on the car, I wrote to the DVLA and the Highway Agency. The Highway Agency responded stating that from the information they had available the road was a private road. DVLA did not bother to respond. I've just tried calling them to address this and find that the only thing they do is take payment over the phone - they don't do anything else over the phone which shows where their priorities lie. Everybody you speak to is arrogant and acts like you owe them everything. On the form that they demand that I return under threat of court action they of course only give me a space of 2cm to explain my side, which they are obviously not interested in. From my experience they will only prove increasingly difficult to contact and not forthcoming about any communications on the matter - my worry is that I will one day just receive a court summons without having been given a fair chance here. I simply want them to confirm whether or not they have evidence to the contrary that the road I was parked on was a public road, if it is and I can be made aware of this then of course I will accept that an offence has been committed and want to pay the out of court settlement. Crooked DVLA practices may push me into a corner I don't want to be in as they are designed to do. They hang up on my calls, ignore my emails and letters, all I can do is fill in this form and wait for them to ignore that -- all the time I'm at their mercy fearing where their corrupt ineptitude may lead. Does anybody have an email address that they actually respond to, or a phone number that actually gets you through to somebody?