Court imposed fine, but it's the first I heard of it?

[Alex@POD]

Hi all,

I'm after a little advice. I have just received a Further steps notice from the local court asking me to pay a fine in 10 days or else. My issue is I have no idea what this is for!

A few months back I forgot to renew the VED on my car, it turns out the DVLA did not have the correct address for me so the first I knew about this is when the car was clamped. I contacted the DVLA, paid the fine and got the car released, then updated my details while I was at it.

Now I have received this letter, to the correct address, but I'm not even sure if it relates to that. I imagine DVLA had issued court proceedings before clamping the car , etc, and now I have to pay the fine/costs (£498, ouch!), but I'd like to speak with someone to confirm this.

I don't want to try and get out of it, if that's what happened, fair's fair and all that, that'll teach me for letting the VED lapse. But I'd like to know what I'm paying!

All the numbers I can find are for automated payment lines, I have emailed the address on the website but I am not sure I'll get a fast response, and there is always good advice to be had here.

How can I speak to someone about this?

[Magic919]

Have you tried the Court? They must know which matter it relates to.

[Alex@POD]

Yes that's what I'm trying to do, but I can't find a phone number to speak to a person.

[Magic919]

Sorry, thought you meant DVLA.

Have you tried here? https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/courts/

[uknick]

Did you buy new VED when you paid for the clamp to be removed?

It might be an obvious thing to do but I'm sure there was a post on here a few months ago where they paid clamp release fee but not outstanding VED and ended up with court summons.

[Alex@POD]

uknick said:

Did you buy new VED when you paid for the clamp to be removed?

It might be an obvious thing to do but I'm sure there was a post on here a few months ago where they paid clamp release fee but not outstanding VED and ended up with court summons.

To be honest I'm not sure what the breakdown of that payment was, but the operator did tell me that it was all sorted (though that's probably not worth anything). I updated my address at the time so I'm not sure if they would have sent later summons to that address?

It would be simpler if they included the court date and what it was for in the letter, rather than "please pay £xxx" only.

[Alex@POD]

Magic919 said:

Sorry, thought you meant DVLA.

Have you tried here? https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/courts/

I had a look on there but all the numbers I can find redirect to the same automated message.

[Magic919]

Is it worth giving DVLA a buzz instead? Must have a greater chance of reaching an actual person.

[Red Devil]

If it's your local court why not take time out to go there in person rather than scrabbling about looking for a telephone number which may or may not connect you with the right individual to help you? With the best part of £500 riding on it that's what I would do.

[Alex@POD]

Red Devil said:

If it's your local court why not take time out to go there in person rather than scrabbling about looking for a telephone number which may or may not connect you with the right individual to help you? With the best part of £500 riding on it that's what I would do.

That's a fair point, but it's still an hour away, and I don't know if I'll be able to speak with the person I need to once I get there either...

[pork911]

and you might get lost as well

how did today's efforts to find a phone number go?

[blearyeyedboy]

Alex@POD said:

it's still an hour away

With £500 riding on it, I'd say it's worth an hour's trip!

[mygoldfishbowl]

Good grief,,,, Where's Loon?

[wolves_wanderer]

The terrible PH postal service strikes again.

[JonV8V]

wolves_wanderer said:

The terrible PH postal service strikes again.

Nah, this ones a case of they had the wrong address, as opposed to 'I failed to tell them I've moved'.

[JacquesMesrine]

Don't agree that it's the Royal Mail. The OP is wonderfully vague in the bit in bold in the first quote and then the throwaway comment in the second in bold.

Still, it's most likely to be DVLA and our postal set up over the the OP failing to update his details, or at least that's the route we can all go down to support the OP.

Alex@POD said:

Hi all,

I'm after a little advice. I have just received a Further steps notice from the local court asking me to pay a fine in 10 days or else. My issue is I have no idea what this is for!

A few months back I forgot to renew the VED on my car, it turns out the DVLA did not have the correct address for me so the first I knew about this is when the car was clamped. I contacted the DVLA, paid the fine and got the car released, then updated my details while I was at it.

Now I have received this letter, to the correct address, but I'm not even sure if it relates to that. I imagine DVLA had issued court proceedings before clamping the car , etc, and now I have to pay the fine/costs (£498, ouch!), but I'd like to speak with someone to confirm this.

I don't want to try and get out of it, if that's what happened, fair's fair and all that, that'll teach me for letting the VED lapse. But I'd like to know what I'm paying!

All the numbers I can find are for automated payment lines, I have emailed the address on the website but I am not sure I'll get a fast response, and there is always good advice to be had here.

How can I speak to someone about this?

Alex@POD said:

To be honest I'm not sure what the breakdown of that payment was, but the operator did tell me that it was all sorted (though that's probably not worth anything). I updated my address at the time so I'm not sure if they would have sent later summons to that address?

It would be simpler if they included the court date and what it was for in the letter, rather than "please pay £xxx" only.

[Alex@POD]

JacquesMesrine said:

Don't agree that it's the Royal Mail. The OP is wonderfully vague in the bit in bold in the first quote and then the throwaway comment in the second in bold.

Still, it's most likely to be DVLA and our postal set up over the the OP failing to update his details, or at least that's the route we can all go down to support the OP.

No no, no need for that, they didn't have the correct address as I forgot to update them. No excuses. I didn't go into detail as that's not the issue here. No need to try and drag Loon back from the dead, no need to cleverly reference other threads (not aimed at you Jacques), no need for all the sarcasm.

The point of the addresses is that they didn't have the right details for any original summons, but they do now, so I want to confirm it is actually the same issue.

All I'm saying here is I'm trying to get a phone number so I can speak to someone about confirming what this fine is for before I pay it. I think a 5 minute phone call is more efficient than taking half a day's holiday to turn up at a government building unannounced and hoping I can speak to someone who can help.

I was hoping someone might know of some office or website somewhere where these numbers may be available. Thanks to Magic, Nick and Red Devil who have tried to help, and Jacques for being supportive regardless.

[pork911]

so with their emotional support have you now found the number you require?

[SS2.]

Alex@POD said:

All I'm saying here is I'm trying to get a phone number so I can speak to someone about confirming what this fine is for before I pay it.

Which Magistrates Court ?

If you really can't get anywhere, I have a friend who works at our local court who'll probably be able to get whatever numbers you require. They don't work every day (and I appreciate that the 21 day clock is ticking if you needed to make a Statutory Declaration), but I'm sure they'd be happy to help next time they're at the court.

[Alex@POD]

pork911 said:

so with their emotional support have you now found the number you require?

Why ask such a stupid question?