DVLA court summons letter for no insurance after SORN date

[ABONE]

Hope someone can help with a SORN question.

 

To cut a very long story short

 

my son's car became undriveable so bought another.

Phoned DVLA after getting a fine

 

what he needed to do to SORN it as he hadn't received the log book from the DVLA and couldn't do it online.

He was told to send in a letter which he did.

 

After a couple of months he got a summons from Stevenage Court for not having insurance.

He wrote to them and explained he'd sent a letter and lo and behold,

notification and tax refund was received the next day and dated back to the receipt by them of the letter.

 

He has now just received a further letter saying that as the SORN was backdated

the offence of no insurance still stands albeit well after the date that the vehicle has been SORN'd.

 

He has an acknowledgment from them stating "Your SORN starts on 11/09/2015"

Summons states that he had no insurance on the 6/10/2015??

 

Is this legal??

Surely if the vehicle has an official SORN date and the tax refunded back to the 11th,

how then can they say it was uninsured after that time?

 

 

Any help would be gratefully received.

[ABONE]

It looks like I have posted this in the wrong forum so am posting here as well as the General Motoring Forum. Hope this doesn't mess things up too much.

 

 

Hope someone can help with a SORN question. To cut a very long story short my son's car became undriveable so bought another. Phoned DVLA after getting a fine what he needed to do to SORN it as he hadn't received the log book from the DVLA and couldn't do it online. He was told to send in a letter which he did. After a couple of months he got a summons from Stevenage Court for not having insurance. He wrote to them and explained he'd sent a letter and lo and behold, notification and tax refund was received the next day and dated back to the receipt by them of the letter.

 

 

He has now just received a further letter saying that as the SORN was backdated the offence of no insurance still stands albeit well after the date that the vehicle has been SORN'd. He has an acknowledgment from them stating "Your SORN starts on 11/09/2015" Summons states that he had no insurance on the 6/10/2015??

 

 

Is this legal?? Surely if the vehicle has an official SORN date and the tax refunded back to the 11th, how then can they say it was uninsured after that time?

 

 

Any help would be gratefully received.

[dx100uk]

did he have valid insurance upto the date the car was eventually SORN?

[ABONE]

Afraid not, that's why he got a fine but the case file states that he did not have insurance on the 6th October. The SORN acknowledgement states that the vehicle was SORN'd on the 11th September.

[dx100uk]

but he has not got a fine yet?

 

 

or is this two things?

 

 

he was fined for xxxx offence

 

 

now he has an additional summons for no insurance for a date passed sorn date?

 

 

your posts are a bit confusing

[ABONE]

My apologies, tried to cut to the chase but left out a ton of history.

 

 

Original fine was failure to Insure because it hadn't been SORN'd dated 22nd June.

 

 

He paid this and wrote a letter as advised by the DVLA stating he wished to SORN it on the 11th Sept.

after much correspondence because they had never sent him a log book.

 

 

It is the same offence but the summons is for an offence which is indeed past the SORN date.

 

 

Having written to them again they maintain that the vehicle was declared SORN on the 27th October and was backdated as requested, which is probably when they processed it as opposed to when they received the letter.

 

 

request to backdate was made asking for it to be backdated to the date of receipt of the letter.

Edited November 19, 2015 by ABONE

[ABONE]

Would anyone have any thoughts, the Stevenage Magistrates court sit on Wednesday next??

[Tony P]

I may be missing something but it seems to me that if you are being summonsed for no insurance on a specific date (6 October) you plead Not Guilty on the basis that on that date insurance was not required as the vehicle was under SORN.

 

 

And as evidence, produce to the Court the DVLA letter stating the SORN commenced from 11 September

(take several photocopies for the Clerk and each of the Magistrates),

adding it's status remained unchanged on 6 October.

 

The fact the letter confirming the SORN commenced 11 September was itself dated after 6 October should be an irrelevant distraction. Irrespective of the letter's date, it is confirming DVLA's acceptance it was SORN from 11 September. End of matter!

 

It is difficult to get DVLA to understand or accept they made an error, so trying to explain to them at this stage is generally useless. They may be interested in settling at the Court room door if they see/hear your defence (not that you are obliged to do this).

 

If you plead Not Guilty and the Magistrates accept this, don't forget to ask for your own costs - and let us know!

[ABONE]

Many Thanks Tony P.

 

 

From their letter these are the phrases which I think are pertinent

 

 

" When declaring a SORN the DVLA will send you an acknowledgement within 28 days confirming receipt

and subsequent update of your SORN application, (Didn't happen, more like 60)

 

 

it also states that you should contact the DVLA if you are not in receipt an acknowledgement letter.

(Don't see where this is a requirement in law)

 

"Until such time as an acknowledgement of SORN letter is received the registered keeper

cannot assume their vehicle has been SORN"

 

" Your have stated in your correspondence that you vehicle was SORN at the time of the offence.

This is not the case, your declared SORN on the 27/10/2015,

(Not true, this is when they printed it out which was 4 weeks after the declaration n was sent to them)

and you requested that it be backdated to the 11/9/2015.

(Again not true, the request was to refund the tax from the date the letter was received by them)

 

"Your legal responsibility did not end until you received confirmation of your SORN from the DVLA."

 

So if their database and acknowledgement state that is was SORN on the 11/9/2015

how can it not be effective after that date??

 

I'm confused with their logic and would be very grateful of some clarity.

You make more sense to me Tony but then its the DVLA.

I'm just still unsure of the legal position.

 

Any further help gratefully received.