Wife bought 2nd hand car – but car was not taxed (buyer had said it was). So wife drives car home on a Saturday night but before she gets back from post office with new tax disc on monday Traffic Warden spots car parked outside our house and wife gets prosecution for no tax disc. What should she do? plead guilty? not guilty (i know she is guilty!), or Guilty with a plea for leniency? What is the fine etc likely to be?
I, of course, was away biking 🙂

How did they know it was your wife's car, the V5 change of keeper would have still been in the post to the DVLA.

After the seller (assume that is what you meant) told her it was taxed, she didn't notice there was no tax disc?

She got the prosecution notice later, once the V5 had been processed.

The car would still have been registered to the previous owner at that point, I reckon she will get off if she pleads ignorance.

Otherwise she's going down (in more ways than one) and will come back with a preference for dungarees and hanging around with ladies with neck tattoo's.

Yes, she realised the car was not taxed once she saw the car & in her great wisdom thought she would drive it home and get a new tax disc on monday. Seller of course encouraged her. She is guilty of keeping a car with no tax disc but only for about 36 hours. Could she plead being a bit girly?

IIRC there are two elements to the penalty for this – a fine for not displaying and a penalty based on the tax unpaid – so she should get off fairly lightly as the second part will be low.

As TJ said, a fine (not excessive), and that's it.

Granted on the tax, but if she has driven an untaxed car then your insurance ain't valid no? So you could get pinged for that too??

The police would have to catch you driving your car while not having any insurance.

I think (but correct me if I'm wrong) that with no tax disc her insurance would've been null and void, too…

You need an insurance certificate to get a tax disc, so, if your argument is correct, then you can insure a car but it won't actually be insured until you get your tax disc? 😕

If you did get stung for not having insurance, then it's another fine, and six points.

Happened to my old man years ago. His Tax had run out so he drove the car to the post office and while inside buying the Tax he got a ticket!

Couldnt get out of it. Although he is generally all mouth and no trousers so I'm guessing he didnt try too hard.

Mornin'. I'm only here to pour scorn on your wife (seeing as no STWer has) 😆 🙄

I'm just impressed that you chose to refer to 'road tax' in your thread title on a cycling forum… you should by now know there's no such thing!

Not having a valid VEL won't invalidate an insurance policy.

EDIT that's to say the police won't do you for driving without insurance just because your tax is overdue.

As I understand it, the responsibility of taxing the vehicle remains with the registered owner at the time of the offence, unless the previous owner completed a SORN I would suggest its their problem. You could simply deny the car was not actually in your possession for the very reason that it wasnt displaying a tax disc and having paid the readies the agreements witht he buyer was you collected it when they found the disc.

I am only basing this on a situation I had. I returned a taxed lease car to the leasing company before the tax ran out (1 week left etc), they didnt tax the vehicle as it stayed in their compound and even though I had receipts proving I was not in possession of the car and they collected the DVLA made me pay an £85 fine because I was still the registered keeper at the time the tax elapsed.

Has she been done for not having tax, or not displaying a tax disc?

is ti actually a prosecution (ie, court hearing) or one of those (constitutionally illegal) "penalty charges"

if she'd bought it but not yet put it on, then she might be in the clear on the former.

The law is a little bit too strict on this & it would certainly be a fairer system if there was provision to allow a new buyer something like 2 working days in which to either SORN it or tax it

A family member had a lapse of memory and had his car untaxed for a week (he rarely used it and a mixture of events helped him forget). He taxed it immediately but received an £80 fine.

CK – You're meant to get a couple of weeks grace before they start sending tickets out.

Apparently they didn't with him!

The couple of weeks grace is rubbish. That's how the previous owner convinced her to drive home in an untaxed car – 'don't worry love you've got 7 days'. I've advised her to play the dumb girly bit on her guilty verdict, a role that comes naturally to her anyway. I do have a nagging feeling that it must all be my fault though. 😕

The law has been varied to allow 5 days' grace if you tax the car online, to allow for the tax disc to be delivered. That's the only grace period I know of.

uplink – Member
The law is a little bit too strict on this & it would certainly be a fairer system if there was provision to allow a new buyer something like 2 working days in which to either SORN it or tax it

Are you being serious???

Are you being serious???

Yes
There's many possible scenarios where someone who buys a car won't be able to immediately tax it – why not give them a [very short] period of time in which to do so? – as long as they pay for it from the time they bought the car, what difference does it make?

To get tax you need insurance. I think the inconvenience of having to sort your tax out before going on the road, wether it is 10mins or 48hrs, is 100% correct. If you cant be bothered to wait untill it is taxed, chances are you may also be as lax with your insurance or MOT

Just a bit of a hijack…

I'm in the situation where I need to tax my van, but the registration papers haven't come through from DVLA from when I bought it. I took the registration paper slip that the seller gave me, my insurance and MOT docs to the post office and they said the slip was invalid as the seller had filled in and given me the wrong bit and they couldn't give me a tax disc. I contacted DVLA who have said that I now have to SORN my van, fill in the application for new reg papers and wait the 20 to 30 days that it will take for the reg papers to come through. I'm well pissed off. Anyone know of any way round this?

To get tax you need insurance. I think the inconvenience of having to sort your tax out before going on the road, wether it is 10mins or 48hrs, is 100% correct. If you cant be bothered to wait untill it is taxed, chances are you may also be as lax with your insurance or MOT

No no real reason then? just 'chances are' 😀

Anyone know of any way round this?

A nuke somewhere over Swansea might be a good start.

You are responsible to ensure the car is taxed, insured and mot'd before you take it from the garage or seller you purchased it from. I bought a new car and phoned the dvla to ask about the legality of driving the car insured (I changed the insurance but was waiting for the insurance document) but untaxed until Monday morning (I was due to pick the car up Friday evening) I was told by the not so helpful people at the dvla that the vehicle must be displaying a valid tax disc. I tried the old one of well when I buy a tax disc Monday it will be back dated to the beginning of the month to which I got told if you drive an untaxed vehicle and are pulled over or seen by the relevant authorities you will be prosecuted and possibly loose the car.

I had the same thing years ago, picked the car up on Saturday PM, it was parked on the drive all day Sunday then I drove it to work on Monday morning intending to tax it Monday lunchtime (yes I had arranged insurance BTW). Unfortunately I was working at a MOD site and as I'd had to stop at the gatehouse to get a new car pass the MOD Plod on the gate spotted that it wasn't taxed. This obviously made his day…

Anyhow I ended up with a £10 fine and that was the end of it.